I often don't have time to bake all my cakes in one evening and have leftover batter... if I have the time, I'll make some cupcakes right away, but this time I have LOTS of leftover cake batter and more cakes to bake tomorrow... can the leftover batter be refrigerated and used at a later time?

Yep. Did it / do it all the time.

Thanks for this - I was wondering the same thing.

Depends. If your recipe uses baking soda, it should be fine, as baking soda's reaction that causes rising does not begin until heated.

If your cake uses baking powder,however, the reaction is activated by contact with liquid. So it begins as soon as you mix the batter. Once you go to bake it, the reaction will have completed, and a good deal of the gases created will have risen through the batter and escaped.

Even double acting baking powder which is designed to react partially with liquid and partially with heat will only give you half the needed rise if you don't bake it immediately.

Do it all the time and it works fine for me.

Often wondered about this myself. Good to know, thanks for posting.

I use the WASC recipe... is the worse thing that could happen is that it might not rise as much as it would if baked immediately? I guess my main concern is that it will still have a good consistency and taste. I would just hate to waste those expensive ingredients... I'm so happy to hear that some of you do it all the time! That would save me so much time...

artscallion makes good points. I usually bake with a mix, but my chocolate cakes are the recipe on the Hershey Cocoa can. It uses baking soda and baking powder and I've refrigerated that, baked it later with no problems.

yes it can and it can even be frozen.just check out the wiltons website

Great question! I've been wondering the same thing. My problem is that I have easy bake oven AKA apartment size oven and can usually bake one cake or two small cakes at a time. And have batter left over waiting to bake and didn't know how long it would last in the fridge.
Another question-does it matter that I use the cake extender receipes? I use the one that calls for sour cream. Flour, sugar, extra egg added to a cake mix. Will that hold well overnight in the fridge?
TIA

Ya, I freeze batter all the time, to use with different cake balls

Sorry, didn't realize you were using a mix. Mixes have stabilizers in them that make them more resilient to things like this. So, as others have said, you probably won't notice any real difference.

That's WONDERFUL news! Now, how long can it be kept in the fridge? Would you say 1 week is too much? When should you consider freezing it?