Tips For Making Numerous Cakes?
Decorating By dandelion56602 Updated 24 Sep 2007 , 2:19pm by pastryjen
In a few weeks I'll be making numerous cakes for my dd's fall festival cake walk. Do you recommend making them w/in a few days of the fall festival or would you bake then freeze? If you freeze how do you go about it? Wrap, freeze/ crust, wrap, freeze/ how do you thaw, etc? I've never made more than 2 cakes at a time & need as many tips as possible. I'll be decorating will buttercream only (a few RI & fondant decorations I'll make in advance). Thanks
So, when you thaw do you thaw in the saran wrap or unwrap then thaw? Would giving a crumb coat before freezing help at all or would it be a mess too?
your can freeze uniced wrapped in plastic wrap and foil. I always freeze my cakes at least overnight or for a few weeks. (it makes them more moist) You can freeze with a crumb coat or completly decorate put in box and wrap your box well and freeze. If decorated the cake will sweat but let it sit on the counter after you take it out of the freezer overnight and the moisture will evaporate. About 80% of the cakes you see in the grocery store and pre-decorated and frozen and you would never know it to look at them and it will not make them taste bad if they are wrapped well.
Val
OK, working in a place where decorating 15-20 cakes a day isn't unheard of.... we would have the cakes baked and frozen in the first part of the week (double wrapped in plastic wrap). Then, usually, a day or two before we would need them we would take them out and place them on boards and "base-frost" them all. And then after you have them all prepared. Then you can decorate them.
It won't hurt to freeze a "base_frosted" ( just iced, no borders or anything else just yet) cake. Just remember, before you decorate it with the frilly bits, you let the cake thaw and let the condensation evaporate off before or you'll have a sticky wet weepy surface and you risk slippage or bleeding.
It just takes time hun, and patience is the name of the game.
You can bake your cakes and freeze them. I double wrap in plastic and double foil. To thaw keep them wrapped. Once thawed I unwrap and ice and decorate as usual.
I have also frozen decorated cakes. The decorations have to be flat, nothing sticking up (like flowers). Let the cake crust, then freeze unwrapped, once cake is frozen, wrap in 2 layers plastic and 2 layers foil. To unthaw, thaw wrapped cake on counter and remove wrapping carefully when thawed. I got complete directions for thawing frozen decorated cakes for www.baking911.com
I did this same thing for a fall festival. I made about 30 one-layer 4 inch round cakes. I had 4 pans and did this all assembly line method. I made the icing first, then mixed double batches of cake mix, baked 4 cakes at a time, cooled them, iced the cooled ones while others were baking. I didn't do any freezing because I did it in two days (the day before and day of the festival, which was at night). I did the detail decorations last on all the cakes. I made some pumpkins, some sunflowers, some spiders and then smiley faces. We got a local bakery to donate those small plastic cake holders so each one was sealed tight but could be seen. It was so much work but we had a cake walk and the kids loved winning the little cakes. I also made the big fall flower cake (in my pics with cattails and sunflowers) to give as a door prize that same day. The royal flowers for it had been made the week before. It was so much work and I said I would never do it again without help but it can be done. It just seemed easier for me to do everything together because I don't have a big freezer or lots of counter space to store half-made cakes. I finished them and boxed them and they were ready to go.
Why should the cakes be thawed while wrapped? Does it make a big difference if you remove the wrapping and thaw a cake?
I have to agree with a lot of the other posters...I bake, fill, crumbcoat and freeze. Yes, they are moister, all the fat in the crumbcoat seals the moisture in. I usually mask the cake right out of the freezer. So long as you don't have really smelly items in your freezer, you are fine.
Ummmm...what exactly is a cake walk? 
i always freezer my cakes, never for more than a week. (that's just my preference) when i pull them out, i stack them, carve, crumb coat, do whatever i have to do, before i actually ice them. that way they can thaw aand settle, so there won't be any bulging in between the layers. hope everything works out!
Why should the cakes be thawed while wrapped? Does it make a big difference if you remove the wrapping and thaw a cake?
If you unwrap your cake then it is exposed to air for a while and will dry out.
Val
Oh. Thanks a lot. That does make sense
A cake walk is basically a "musical chairs" with cakes - so SO fun!!!
It is a GREAT fundraiser - and is a wonderful addition to Holiday Carnivals or Seasonal Festivals. Tickets can be purchased to "take the walk".
It is up to the organizers how many "walks" one can take per ticket. People usually donate cakes/cookies/cupcakes for the event.
Typically, the cake walk area is roped or sectioned off - and in a prominent area of the festival so lots of folks see it and want to participate!!! A circle (or random spots) is (are) designated in the cake walk area, and you can either have the participants walk around the "spots" or circles/squares/numbers on the floor, or you can use chairs. Each spot or chair will have a number - usually no more than 20 to allow for control and more opportunity to win a cake! The leader has a bowl with the numbers 1-20 (the number is equal to the number of spots on the floor). These will be used over and over for each "walk".
The leader will start the music, and it is more fun if the group "boogies" to the musical rhythms....The group walks ("boogies" 
) around in a circle (or around the space if the spots are placed randomly around the cake walk area - just make sure the area is roped off so no one can "sneak in" 
).
When the music stops, the participants need to find a spot closest to them. Then, the leader draws a number and whomever is on the same number spot gets to pick the cake they take home!
FUN FUN FUN!!!!!! 
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