had you had success feezing cake layers a week in advance?
having a party next weekend, and i will have zero time to spend baking and cooling cakes after this morning
making a 14", 10", & 6" layers - if i bake today, and then wrap real well in saran wrap, will they be still taste fine next week?
I have never frozen cake before, so i am worried it taste "like it was frozen" if it helps at all, the flavors are -
red velvet marble & lemon poppyseed.
(this cake is for a family party, not for an order)

also - how do i ice a frozen cake?
can i put the layers together ( using BC as filling) while frozen and crumb coat or do they have to be thawed?
I plan to take them out of the freezer and crumb coat Thursday, and decorate Friday.

thank you



Tina

I've frozen cakes before and they turned out fine (they didn't taste freezer burned). I wrapped mine in saran wrap and then put them in a ziploc bag. I took them our the night before and let them thaw in the refidge then I filled and decorated. I never tried filling them frozen, but I am wondering how it would turn out. That could make it so much easier.

thanks
I was reading some old posts, and i saw some info that frozen cakes should not be in with meats ( home freezer) why not?
I do not have much in there now, a few lbs of ground beef, a pizza and a ham -
am i going to have a problem? - even if they are double wrapped and in zip locks??--I do have both- saran wrap and the big 2 gallon zip lock bags.

I am going to start baking after i find out about the meat thing ( or not if the cake will take on the flavors of the meat )


Tina

I freeze my cakes often and don't have any problems with taste. In fact, some swear by freezing cakes before serving them because it makes them more moist. If you wrap your cakes in saran wrap before they even cool, it will lock in the moisture. I use saran wrap, foil, and then put my cakes in plastic shopping bags before I put them in the freezer.

It doesn't take long for cakes to defrost. You can fill them frozen but don't know about a crumb coat when they are frozen. Will you be staking these cakes as well? If so, you would need to wait until they defrost for the stacking and dowels.

I freeze cakes all the time and they taste just fine. Also the pastry shop I worked in froze cakes as well. I think most of them do. Just wrap it really well in saran wrap.

I freeze every cake I make, whether I need to or not. Freezing changes the texture, making it more stable for torting, carving, handling, etc. I find cakes that have not been previously frozen are too delicate to work with, and more likely to crack, or split.

I bake, cool 10 minutes in the pan, turn out to rack, flip, cool another 10 or 15 minutes. Wrap in double plastic, then foil, freeze anywhere from overnight to two weeks, remove from freezer, remove foil but keep plastic wrap on (this is important to prevent condensation...it will form on the outside of the plastic wrap instead of on the cake), set on counter to come completely to room temp (a few hours at most), torte, etc.

It's best to wait for the cakes to thaw before filling or crumbcoating. As your cake thaws it releases moisture that can cause the filling/icing to be sticky or messy. I crumbcoated a frozen cake once and it took forever to crust because the icing was wet and sticky from the thawing cake.

I freeze my cakes most of the time for a week or two, depending on how many I need. Last night I made the two I need for Monday and the three cakes for next weekend. I love to be ahead of the game!!! I do thaw them in the fridge, still wrapped in saran wrap, then fill and crumb coat while cold. I like to work with my cakes cold. They are much more stable.

Do it all the time. More moist, tastes great, easier to work with.

When doing a taste comparison, and a bride asks if I freeze cakes, I've had the opportunity to tell more than one bride: "You tell me. 2 of these cakes have been in my freezer for over a week. One was baked this morning. You tell me which is which."

They always picked the wrong one. Twice. Always.

I always freeze my cakes. I also carve, fill, stack them, and crumbcoat while still frozen/semi-frozen! I've never had a problem. I think in locks in the moisture.

Same here - always freeze my cakes and ice them frozen. If a cake is due on Saturday, I get them out on Thursday evening and ice them. Then finish up the fondant and decorations on Friday evening and Saturday morning. Everyone always comments on how moist my cakes are.

I have frozen cakes on several occasions. When I have extra batter, I bake a six inch layer and put it in the freezer just in case I need a quick cake for some unforseen reason in the future. I came in handy this weekend. My daughter works for a well-known drug store/pharmacy and they had a bake sell for the Make-A-Wish Foundation yesterday and she was supposed to let me know when and forgot to tell me until the night before. I took out a layer of white and a layer of chocolate and iced them and made a few roses for the top and sent it on it's way to her. You couldn't tell it was ever frozen and it sold within an hour. I have never been able to tell that any of my cakes have been previously frozen unless I don't get it wrapped well enough in the first place.

I always put the cake in the freezer on a flat surface of some kind until it is frozen and then remove and wrap it in two layers of press-n-seal and a layer or two of foil then put it back in the freezer. I always thaw it in all of its wrapping until it is at room temp then I unwrap it to ice and decorate. I have done this and taken a cake to church several times (I supply a birthday cake each month at church) and everybody raves on how moist and wonderful my cakes are.

I didn't say so in my previous post but I always freeze my cakes. Even if I'm using them the next day.

I have some chocolate mini cupcakes in the freezer (not iced). How long can I leave them in there and still have them taste good? By the way, they are just for family, but I don't want to make anyone sick!

For those of you that freeze all the time, do you bake with mixes or from scratch? I bake from scratch so I am wondering if mix cakes get moister with freezing, scratch cakes or both?
TIA

I use doctored mixes and freeze my cakes all the time. I have a full time job, so don't have time to bake, layer and crumb coat all in one day. I also don't bake lots of cakes, so when I make a large batch of batter I make all different sizes of cakes, cool, wrap in saran wrap and freeze so I can just pull out what I need at the drop of a hat. It has saved my butt a couple of times with last minute requests for cakes. No difference in taste or moisture when I freeze them. I allow them to come to room temp in the saran wrap before I do anything else to them.

I also always freeze my cakes before crumb-coating, icing and/or covering them in fondant. Like everybody else, I let them come to room temperature before unwrapping them. The time or two I haven't done this have been a source of great regret: one cake fell apart completely on its way to (of all things!) my MIL'2 102nd birthday party and the others were just too hard to work with: crumbly and hard to manage. You can keep them frozen indefinitely, too (well, a couple of months, anyway), so like many others, I also bake up leftover batter into either small rounds or cupcakes, which are always in demand. Wrapping them in enough layers is the key to success here. I've never tried to do anything with a frozen cake, simply because it's too humid where I live and the condensation from the thawing would make my icing, ganache or fondant runny. If you're in doubt, freeze one layer overnight and leave one at room temp to see what the difference is. The frozen one will be more moist and will have settled better.

I have recently started freezing my cakes. It's really helping!

After you take the cake out to decorate it, do you put it back in the fridge once its decorated or do you leave it out at room temperature?

I work full time so when I have a large order I always bake ahead and freeze the layers. There is no difference in the flavor, texture, or moistness. I wrap the layers with plastic wrap, then aluminum foil, then place them in a sealable freezer bag. Make sure to press all the air out of the freezer bag before placing in the freezer. To thaw, I remove the foil and let the layers come to room temperature before removing the plasitc.

Wow thank you. I've been doing it wrong this whole time. Im just learning. Luckily, Ive only done cakes for family members.

Ok, I'm sure this is a dumb question, but do you level your cake and slice it for torting prior to freezing it? I found it frustrating to wait for the cake to fully defrost before being able to level it and slice it in half to torte. Maybe I am just impatient, but I'd love to know what many of you do. Thanks!

i always freeze my cake layers. i bake from scratch and enhanced mixes. they all do great. i do let mine come to room temp. before i torte, etc. after decorating them, i box them up for the client. never back in the fidge. learned on this site, that it makes them dry. i didn,t put in fridge before i read it on here. i think the cake taste better each day until you finish it up. lol. it really does. hth

this site along with all of you is so AWESOME!!! I am learning so much I had not been freezing my cakes but will start now !!!!