This is a two part question:

1) What are the pros and cons to freezing a cake?

2) What is the best way to ship a cake?


Here's my situation:

A good friend of mine is getting married in November and has asked me to do her cakes..........yes that's plural.......she wants a small two-tiered cake at each table, along with a three-tiered regular wedding cake. The glitch is that she lives on the other side of the country!

I could work this one of two ways, but I'm not sure which is best. Should I travel prior to the wedding and bake/freeze on site? This would mean having to rely on other people's equipment, which may be disastrous, not to mention time consuming. Or should I utilize the massive ovens where I'm currently working and get it all done in one shot, then overnight the cakes to my friends place, then have her freeze them upon arrival. I plan to do all of the decorating on-site a few days before the wedding.

Are there any major drawbacks to freezing cakes? I know there are conflicting opinions about this, so I'm curious about what everyone's thoughts are. In my experience, I've never had a problem with the taste of the cake after freezing. In fact, sometimes I swear it makes the cake moister!!

So.........to freeze, or not to freeze?
And what's the best way to handle long-distance baking?

It is not cheap to ship cakes. I would travel early.

I'm thinking if the cakes are not iced, couldn't you just ship an ice chest with already frozen cakes inside? My friend's fiance used to live in Alaska...every time she'd go visit him (all the way near the top somewhere) she'd take this HUGE ice chest filled with fozen meats etc that she would stock up on at Costco. I can understand the dilemma on using someone else's oven...I have a cake to do for one of my best friends in 2010...and I too will be facing that problem. I'm thinking this way may be cheaper and just pack your pans in case something breaks? Perhaps I am way off...I've never shipped a cake OR taken one on the plane...so my idea may be flawed (that's my disclaimer!)

Good luck either way...sounds like a lot of work. How many cakes total do you ahve to make?

Keyshia

I have travelled long distances with several of my wedding cakes. The farthest was from the coast of North Carolina to above Detroit Michigan. This is what I do. I bake, level, tort, fill and crumb coat. Then I freeze the cakes individually. box and wrap in foil. Then I take them out right when I'm getting ready to leave and put in the back of the jeep, and cover with several blankets. I travel. I usually get there 2 days before the wedding. Take out of jeep leave boxed to thaw completely ice decorate and set up at venue. I haven't had any problems.

Jibbies