Lots Of Newbie Questions! Please Help!
Decorating By Momma2three Updated 6 Jul 2007 , 5:45pm by Momma2three
Hi! I am new to this forum and to cake decorating. I have always been fascinated with cake decorating and I am finally going to try my hand at decorating a cake for the twin's birthday. I am wanting to do a round layer cake, covered with buttercream and decorated with fondant dots and curly cues. However, I have a few questions.
I would like to bake the cake a bit ahead of time and freeze it. But, I would like to fill it, maybe with some sort of strawberry filling. Can I freeze it with filling in it? What is the best way to freeze it? Should I crumb coat before I freeze or after? Should I decorate it frozen or let it thaw first?
When making the fondant curly cues, how far in advance can I make them and how long will they take to dry? What would be the best way to attach them? (They will be on the top and all along the bottom edge of the cake-like the cake on the Wilton "Silly Feet Cake and Treat Stand" picture). Thank you so much to any of you who take the time to help out a newbie! 
Weldome to Cake Central. there are dozens of threads of freezing cakes, plain, crumbcoated, and even decorated.
the search button above will guide you. Limit your searches to the title topics.
You can freeze your cake in plain layers (well wrapped) or filled and crumbcoated. If you use a jam or preserves for the strawberries, even plain or mixed with buttercream, it will hold up fine.
You should probably thaw the cake before the final icing and decorations. Sometimes the icing will pull away from the cake, as the cake thaws.
The fondant can be made ahead, but if it needs to bend slightly to apply to the cake, you might want them totally dry. The fondant pieces will stick to your icing. If you use a crusting buttercream, they will need a slight brush of water to stick to the dried suface of the icing.
Have fun, remember, it is only cake.
Okay well you can bake,fill and crumb coat before you freeze just make sure you wrap it very very good like 3 or four times with plastic wrap then with foil.
Then let it come to room temperature BEFORE unwrapping....
The curley cues can be done at least 2-3 days in advance to dry completely depending on the humidity. You can do them as far as 2 weeks in advance if you want. Just store them in an airtight container AFTER they are completely dry... **tip for drying...let them dry for a day then roll them on to the other side for a day keep doing this until they are dry.
You can attach them with butter cream when you are ready..
Good luck Remeber we always want to see pictures..
Welcome to CC!
You can freeze your cake with no problem. I don't know about filling it and then freezing it. You'll want to thaw the cake before you ice it. It's really hard to get the icing to adher when the cake is frozen. Allow 2-3 hours to defrost, tort it, fill it and put on the crumb coat. Now, would be a good time to stick it in the fridge for several hours, well covered, of course. This will give it time to settle and will help prevent the bulge that can develop on the sides. Again, you'll want the cake to be room temperature before you do anything else. Now, you are ready to ice or cover the cake in fondant and decorate. Have lots of fun playing with the cake. There are hundreds of wonderful designs out there that can be accomplished with very little experience. Be sure to post pictures. And ask any other questions at any time!
I'm no expert so hopefully some experts will give their advice.
I filled my cakes before freezing. Never had problems. I put a sealer on my cake after filling and stacking (before freezing).
It depends what you make your curly cues out of. I like to use MMF. I always make my stuff ahead of time. As far in advance as I can start the cake decorating process.
I would just bake the cakes and freeze them, it is easy to tort and fill them before icing them. I personally don't do a crumb coating, instead I use the wilton icing tip with a big bag, and then I don't have crumbs and I have the perfect level layer of icing. As for the fondant curly cues you can make them as far ahead as you'd like. Just color the fondant, cut the strips and wrap them around pencils or pens or whatever it is that makes them as wide as you like and let them dry. you can pull them very carefully off the pencil and lay them aside to dry them as well. I imagine you're using Wilton Fondant as well, just remember to make all of the fondant a shade brighter/darker then you want it to be, because it will lighten up as it dries and try not to let it dry in the sun because that will fade it even further. Where as buttercream flowers and such get brighter/darker as they dry fondant does the exact opposite. I am sure you will get a Ton of other tips as well, from other users. You can make the curly cues ahead of time, but I wouldn't with the dots, because they will dry to hard and not be so pleasant to try and eat. I don't know if you want to try and make the marshmallow fondant recipe on here, it would work for the circles, but for the curlies you'd have to add gumtex or tylose to it to get it to harden properly.. however it does taste a THOUSAND times better then the wilton fondant does. Good Luck and make sure you post pictures! I bet that very soon you will be addicted to this just like the rest of us.. it all started with me making my daughters cake and then I was seriously bit by the cake decorating bug
Jen
Wow! You guys are great...and fast! Thank you so much for all of the advice. I will try to post a picture when it is finished!
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