OK - I made a great cake - everything came out just like I wanted it to and I was done a full day ahead of the party I made it for. BUT...I finished it last night , late, and I was tired. The fridge was full (the filling is cream based and needs to stay chilled) so I went out to the garage to put it in our little used but fully functional fridge out there. The problem is that is has...ahem...a bit of a FUNKY smell inside. It didn't occur to me until this afternoon that the smell might rub off on my cake - which is iced in buttercream. It is in a cake box, but that is certainly NOT airtight - so I went out to get it and put it in the inside fridge and it does seem to have picked up a bit of the wiff. Maybe it is just the box? Maybe it will wear off after being out of there for awhile? Does anyone have any experience with this? Is my cake going to taste like stale fridge??? I am bummed...

I am bumping myself....

I think that the cake may have picked up some of the smell. There's no way of actually knowing until you taste it. Are you going to be at the party where thic cake is being served? If you haven't sent it out yet, you could do this. Take some chocolate, a hershey's bar, and break it up and put it in the box around the cake. Chocolate absorbs all smells, so you may be able to pull out the 'funky' smell, and replace it with chocolate. Just a thought.

I WILL TRY THAT RIGHT AWAY - THANKS!!!! (I am going to be at the party tomorrow and it is just family, but I don't want to give them funky cake!!)

Chocolate absorbs odors? I never knew that. I have heard of baking soda and coffee grounds.

I have an idea, taste the chocolate and see if it tastes different.

I remember an experiment in junior high school where we blocked our noses and tasted something and couldn't figure it out. The smell of something affects our taste somehow.

I sure hope your cake is OK.

I hope I am wrong but my mom put something in her garage refrigerator and it picked up the smell and we could taste it.

I had some leftover frosting yesterday for a future cake and to be on the safe side I put the frosting in a plastic container, then putting that container in another plastic container. I am hoping that if anything should happen to be put in there with onions/garlic the smell won't be absorbed. I don't plan on putting anything in there, but things happen.

darkchocolate

P.S. I hope you have a great tasting cake, especially after all of your hard work.

Great adivce from everyone.

For the smell in your fridge, put a small bag of charcol (the kind you use for the BBQ), it will absorb the smell. Change the bag in a few days then keep baking soda in the fridge.

This happen to my mom's freezer the power went out and the meat spoiled. Smelled really bad, she had to use a big bag of charcol and after a few days the smell was gone. I know you are charcol but it does work, my boss said the same thing and he came back and said the smell was gone in his fridge.

Good luck.

I had this happen when our power went out once, and the only thing that would get rid of the funk was coffee grounds (unused). Just set them in the fridge, and in a day or two, the smell is gone. You could try setting them by the cake. If the cake is for family, I say carefully remove a small bit of the bottom border (if there is one) and taste it. Replace the bottom border with the extra frosting, and voila, no worries if it is okay.

Otherwise, you know to stop and get a ham and tell them you forgot what you were supposed to bring.

I had the same thing happen to me... and the cake not only absorbed the odors, but it tasted AWFUL. I had 3 tiers in there iced in buttercream (before I put the fondant on) - and they were all ruined. I thought it was just the smell - good thing I actually tasted it to make sure.

I have done that. I put the cake in the fridge and was cleaning up after dinner and decided to put the taco meat uncovered into the fridge. I didn't think anything about it until the next day. We tried putting the cake out so the frosting would cover the smell but it didn't work. We tried a little bit of the frosting and it didn't taste funny it was just the box that smelled.

We ate the cake today an no stink or aftertaste - thankfully! That's for the chocolate tip - I did do that and the stink went away. Thanks!!!!!!!

thank Heaven. Next step: work on getting that fridge back up to par.
http://www.ehow.com/how_18213_remove-odors-refrigerator.html

Thanks for the link!

We live in New Orleans. We expected to be gone a day or two for the Hurricane Katrina evacuation, when we finally were able to return home after two months I cannot even begin to describe the smell in the fridge! I washed it down with bleach and then left open containers of kitty litter in it, changing them every day for a week or so. We are the only household I know of that was able to successfully salvage our fridge, the kitty litter worked wonders! I know that the average slightly musty smelling garage fridge won't need this type of treatment, but I think that kitty litter alone would do the trick really quickly on a smaller job.

...taking notes fervently...

I had it plugged in while I was cleaning it with bleach, mainly because the initial stench was just so overpowering that not only did I have to wear a mask to clean it but the cold air was helping to keep me from getting sick. It was just so gross! But after that I left it unplugged with the door shut for about a week while I was alternating the kitty litter bowls. I figured there was no need to waste the electricity since there was no food in it.

EEk!! thankfully it didn't get the smell.
If i feel like my fridge has a bit of smell i usually cut a potato and place it around the fridge. same with apple and lemon. sometimes the baking soda doesn't seem to cut it.

Thank you. My spare fridge in the garage has the musty smell to it. Nothing rotten, just smells a little funky. I bought it secondhand and I have a feeling that although it was plugged in when I bought it, the prior owner must have had it closed up without being turned on for awhile.