I'm making a cake for my son's b-day party on Saturday next weekend. I have Tuesday off. I plan on making the cake Tuesday and starting to ice it that evening and the rest of the week. Will it still taste ok? Or should I just attemtp to do it all Friday night?

It might be a stretch to bake and ice in the same day, unless you bake early in the am and ice later in the pm. Personally I would bake/level/torte tuesday, then freeze, then fill/crumb/ice Friday, and finish decorating Friday/Saturday.

It might be a stretch to bake and ice in the same day, unless you bake early in the am and ice later in the pm. Personally I would bake/level/torte tuesday, then freeze, then fill/crumb/ice Friday, and finish decorating Friday/Saturday.

I've never done the freezing thing. When you say freeze is that just the plain cake or w/ a crumb coat? If I'm going to ice it on Friday would I pull it out of the (deep) freeze into the fridge on Wed night? Thanks!

I personally don't crumb coat before freezing, I just freeze the plain cake. I wouldnt take the cake out of the freezer until Friday, an hour or so before you're ready to ice. It doesn't need to be thawed completely before icing.

sorry for so many questions. I plan to use Buttercream. Will the moisture from the cake thawing mess w/ the butter cream?

I usually put the buttercreamed cake in my extra fridge to firm up before putting on the fondant and I've never had a problem with moisture. I don't freeze my cakes though so can't comment there. I also don't put my fondant covered cakes in the fridge either, only buttercream and have them come to room temperature before serving.

You will find that the flavor heightens and the cake actually tastes more fresh and extra moist if you freeze it while still slightly warm.... That is freezing the unfrosted tiers, obviously you can't ice a warm cake.

Thaw in fridge Thursday night if you want to decorate Friday - or thaw in fridge Fri night if you have time to decorate Sat.

ok...maybe one last question...do I wrap in plastic, aluminum foil, freezer wrap....?

We freeze cakes from time to time (double wrapped in plastic, no foil) and have no problems with buttercream frosting.

I have to agree with MacsMom that the cakes taste more moist and fresh when frozen. I freeze my cakes quite often and I always get complements about how moist and delicious my cakes tastes.

I just use plastic wrap, 3 layers.

If I have to bake early, I bake early in the morning, flip the cakes out of the pan while hot, level, then quickly wrap in 2 layers of cling wrap and pop in the freezer for at least 2 hours. Once completely cooled, I will dam, fill, and stack my layers, then wrap the entire layered cake on a fitted cake board 5 times in cling wrap. Some settling should occur while in the freezer and while thawing, this is a good thing get that out of the way now! Anyways, Thursday take them out of the freezer, and place in the fridge to thaw about 12 hours, or more. Friday morning, bring them out, do a quick crumb coat, then allow to finish coming to room temp before doing your final decorating! Hope this helps! This works for me best after months of trial and error!

How long can they stay good in the freezer and are there any cakes that you WOULD NOT want to freeze? Thanks!

We've had no problems keeping cakes in the freezer up to a month (haven't tried longer than that), but they are usually in the freezer for 1-2 days.

I've had a cakes frozen for 3 to 6 months (saving extra to use as last-minute desserts for get-togethers) and they have been just fine.

Heck, we saved our anniversary tier (covered in fondant, wrapped several times, and kept in box) and it tasted just as fresh as our wedding day!

I had an un-iced chocolate mud cake in the freezer for 5 months once and after thawing you would NEVER know it had even been frozen. You need to wrap very well for longer freezing - I used about three layers of glad (plastic) wrap, then a layer of foil and then another layer of plastic and pop that in a sealed plastic container if possible.

I've also eaten a piece of a wedding cake I made that had been frozen for 7 months after the wedding, and it was still absolutely perfect. That was chocolate mud cake with ganache & fondant. Mud cake does freeze exceptionally well.

I do ALL of my personal holiday baking in one weekend. Cookies, cakes, bars, truffles and candy. I am then free for the holidays, and at a moments notice can whip out a platter of treats for any party or whatnot. I have had cakes/treats frozen for several months and they taste perfect every time. Just make sure they are wrapped well.

Where can I find a recipe for this mud cake you speak of?! Yummers!

I haven't read all the replies here, so forgive me if I'm repeating.
I have had two separate occasions when a completely finished cake got postponed and I had to freeze them. One was a sheet, so no problem with decorations, they were flat. One was tiered, so I just took off the stand up fondant decorations on top.

Anyway, both cakes looked and tastes wonderful, The butter cream was good, cake was moist and fillings were in tact. My only complaint, (and it was my daughter's cake, so this is in fact my complaint, not a customer's) was that one layer had cherry pie filling in it, and it sorta soaked in and lost it's flavor. But everything else has been fine.

So I say, if you want, bake, fill, stack, frost and even fondant it, as far as you want to go, and then take it out of the freezer, and into the fridge thursday night, and out on the counter friday. If I were doing this on purpose, not out of a postponed party, I would add any fondant/gumpaste decorations on after it comes back to room temp. Freezing can make hard decorations brittle.
Hope that helps!

Thanks CC! Need to try that this week, yum!