I am knee deep into my very first wedding cake (freaking out a tid bit) , and had a quick question. The wedding is Sunday evening, and the cake is a stacked three tier chocolate cake. The frosting will be BC, but the filling will be cream cheese frosting. Now, my concern is about refridgeration. I will have access to a fridge at the reception site, but only starting at 4pm, and the wedding is at 6:30pm. How soon can I assemble the cake (wanting to do this Saturday), and once I do, do I need to refridgerate the cake immediately, or is it needed?

I'm planning on assembling on site as well.

Thanks so much in advance!!

My first wedding cake was filled with cream cheese filling and I was stressed about it too. My family and partner in crime convinced me there was enough sugar in it to preserve the cream cheese so I just did it and prayed everything would turn out ok. I did the filling on a thursday night and delivered the cake on the following Saturday with no refrigeration and nobody got sick or died. I'm not saying you'll definitely be fine but I was.

Anybody else? No fridge sounds fabulous to me, but I want to absolutely make sure.

I'm not sure - but I have the same question. I made a carrot cake for fathers day with cream cheese icing and my fridge (in the garage) went out. It was still cool - but not cold. My grandmother said cream cheese is fine out of the fridge for a long time - but I was still worried about it.

So, here is a bump for you.

Thanks for both responses, but I'm still hearing that we don't know completely for sure. I'd love to start filling and decorating tonight, and like I said, it's for Sunday evening. Is this ok??

(I'm getting kinda desperate here) (Ok, not yet, but wait until tomorrow). Ha!

I really think you will be fine. Keep the cake in the fridge for as long as you can for your own sanity, but give yourself plenty of time to assemble. I haven't had a problem with the cream cheese icing not being refridgerated. I heard on the Food Network that the reason that high sugar foods don't go bad as quickly is because the sugar molecules take up the sugar molecules and there is nowhere for the bacteria to grow. Knowing this you will definitely be fine for a couple of hours out of the fridge.

I made a carrot cake with cream cheese icing on Monday. Stayed in the fridge until 12:00 noon Tuesday. It was out for 6 hours (until 6). Went back to the fridge Tuesday night. We finished it on Thursday. No one sick.
I'm not sure if I would feel comfortable leaving it out overnight, but half a day (after being well chilled) seemed to be OK.

I'm not sure if i read the post right - do you want to assemble tonight for Sunday evening, meaning the cake will be out of refrigeration during that time? If that's the case, I wouldn't chance it with cream cheese filling. Can you possibly rearrange some shelves in your fridge to make it fit?

Once I bought a pumpkin/cream cheese muffin at a deli - looked fine on the outside, green on the inside! I don't know how many days it sat out before I bought it, but I would guess no more than 2 or 3.

Do you have a cake shop near you? They make a cream cheese flavor in the sleeve that is not perishable. Or LorAnn oils have a cheesecake flavor you could add to buttercream.

Thanks for the responses. I think what I will do is wait to fill the layers until Saturday, then find room in the fridge to store until Sunday when I head to the site.

Thanks again! I'll post pictures afterwards.

I am paranoid about cream cheese icing and go overboard on keeping it refrigerated and advising people to keep it refrigerated, but twice now a bride has called me a few days after her wedding to tell me they just enjoyed some leftover carrot cake from the wedding with that icing. I asked both brides if they'd refrigerated the leftovers after the wedding but they had not. And while it gives me a heart attack to think of eating that cake after it had been sitting out for a few days, no one has gotten sick.