Hi everyone,

My son's wedding is Saturday. If I bake the wedding cake layers today, and wrap them in plastic wrap, then decorate later Thursday and Friday morn...will the cake still be fresh and good on Saturday?

I think I remember reading something here about baking ahead...but I can't remember where, and I'm too frazzled to go and search for it. Please someone tell me!

Linda

Ditto what Doug said!!

~luraleigh~

I have heard that once you get thet frosting on they will stay fresher..maybe you could just crumb coat them today? Well I second the freezing them like the other members said mostly. I think you will be fine. Congrats on wedding. I have a wedding cake this weekend also. I am baking tomorrow night and decorating friday am, no other choice really. ANd the cake is one of those "pro bono" family freebies deal so I am not real worried. They have to like it, hahahahaa! Free tastes better!

I prefer to make my cakes ahead of time and freeze, for at least a day - they are much easier to handle when icing and decorating. Plus, like a lot of other people, I work a full-time job - unfortunately not cake
decorating, - so I only have a few hours each night to work on my cakes. So baking a few days ahead of time and freezing is a must for me.

Hi mommymarilyn! Hows things?


Ditto~~~WHat mommymarilyn said!

I always freeze,even for just a day.thay are so much easier to frost

Thanks for the suggestions.

I only had space for the 14-inch layer and 2 8-inch layers in my freezer.
I had to leave 2 12" layers out, but I wrapped them with plenty of plastic wrap and foil. I hope they will be OK. They are the groom's cake, for the rehearsal dinner.

Today I'll bake the rest of the layers, and hopefully get everything iced and decorated. So..........it will still be fresh on Saturday at the reception? Can you tell I'm not very experienced?

Thanks very much.

Linda

Ever since I read a post about a month ago about wrapping in plastic wrap, that's what I've done. The cakes stay soooooooooooooooooooo moist. Wrap them immediately after baking, as soon as you can turn it out of the pan. Don't wait for them to cool. Then when I'm ready to decorate, I unwrap them, level, frost and decorate.

Some people are very sensitive to the taste of frozen cakes, and if your freezer is like mine, it's only about 10-12" wide. Not big enough for most cakes. I want to invest in a deep freeze, but ya know, that costs $$$ lol

How long do you allow your cakes to defrost after you froze them? Or do you put the buttercream on the frozen cakes?

Well, here is what I do. I bake them all on the same day. I place the largest layer right onto the board. Wrap in saran wrap. The other layers, I wrap in saran on other boards lined w/saran. Place in freezer. The day I am decorating, I make all my frosting, remove the wrap from the base layer, then take out the layer to be placed on top of that from the freezer. I fill the base layer, place the frozen cake on top, & then I let it defrost before I crumb coat. The reason you freeze the cakes is so you can handle them when placing on the cake. If you tried doing a large layer w/o freezing, it would fall apart.

I also vote for freezing.

I level and torte the cakes at least, and if I don't frost them I simply put a cardboard round between the layers before wrapping then well and freezing.

Sometimes I fill and crumb coat and then freeze the whole thing. I let it freeze long enough to harden the icing, then I double wrap in clingfilm and then double wrap in foil.

Baking this wedding cake is harder than I thought, probably due to the fact that I don't have much experience.

Well.......here's my problem now. One of the layers rose up in the middle and didn't get done completely and it also cracked just a bit. I realized that it was not quite done in the middle AFTER I had removed it from the oven and let it cool for about 30 minutes!!

See.......I had to run out to buy cake boards right after I took that cake out and right before I ran out, I put another cake in the oven to bake while I was gone.................that's why I didn't notice the under-done cake it til I got back.

So, someone please tell me, is it possible to put that cake back in the oven and bake it some more? (I hope that's not a stupid question ) Or should I bake a whole new layer??? This wedding cake is also getting very expensive! No wonder people charge a lot to bake a wedding cake.

Anyway...someone please advise me...can I put the under-done cake back in the oven and bake it some more? Will it ruin the taste and texture?

Linda

you'd have to do another layer.

Yes, do another layer. Is it your big layer? Have you ever tried putting a flower nail in the middle? I have found with the bigger layers, it helps it cook in the middle.

I did the flower nail trick for the first time on my wedding cake today and it worked like a CHARM!!!!