I need advice on the best way to freeze 400 cupcakes. This is my biggest order yet and I'm getting a little nervous. It's in August. The more thoughts the better !!! Please share your best tips for freezing cupcakes and if you have trouble with cupcake liners pulling away? I've read several things saying that on cake central. Thanks.

Congratulations on your big order! I've read those posts, too, about liners pulling away from the cupcake; but I've never experienced that. If you are in doubt about your recipe and how the liner will respond to freezing, bake and freeze a few before doing the larger quantity. Buttercream freezes well, too, if you want to ice them before freezing. And freeze in boxes or tubs that can be stacked. Not sure what your others concerns are.

Hi, I just made cupcakes for my daughter's first birthday. Since I was doing all the baking (cake, cupcakes, cookies, macarons, cake pops, etc) I had to do everything in batches. I made the cupcakes 2 weeks in advance and froze them. I wrapped each cupcake individually in plastic wrap and then placed them in ziplock bags, squeezing out as much air as possible. The cupcakes turned out beautifully and delicious. I got so many compliments and people could not believe that they were frozen at one point. I did not encounter any problems with the liner pulling away from the cake. If you do decide to put them in ziplock bags, be sure there is plenty of room in the freezer because I ended up with some dented cupcakes. good luck!

OMG!! I was going to ask the same question. I have my biggest cupcake order in Aug as well of 325 cupcakes and I am trying to figure out which will be the best way possible to approach this. I froze cupcakes before but only for couple days and they were fine. on the other hand i froze some for a couple weeks just for an experiment and once unthawed they were dry. So I am so scared to freeze i was planning on just working all thru the night baking the cupcakes. I would be happy to see the suggestions of others...

I had the same question! For those of you who have frozen them, were they dry at all when you thawed them out? Any issues with condensation?

Thanks!

To offset condensation problems keep your products wrapped while they're defrosting.

For large orders the freezer is an important part of my scheduling. But I have a chest freezer manual defrost so it keeps all baked goods at a constant -10 degrees F. With this kind of temperature control I've never had a problem with the final products. If I only had a self defrost refrigerator freezer (this means constant temp fluctuation) I would only use it for short term storage - a few days at most. And then there shouldn't be flavor/texture issues.

MimiFix-

What exactly do you put the cupcakes in when freezing them? You said you keep them wrapped when you defrost them. Almost all the forum posts I read they say to unwrap them to keep from having condensation problems. Can you please explain in a little more detail what you do?

Do you have thoughts on transporting large amounts of cupcakes. Any tips you have for large orders are appreciated. Thanks.

I freeze cupcakes all the time, though never large quantities. I have celiac so I bake gluten free cupcakes and keep some in the freezer. Then when I'm going to an event where I know I won't be able to enjoy the dessert I grab one from my freezer and swirl some buttercream on and bring it with me. I freeze them on a tray and then once frozen move them into a plastic freezer storage bag. I do not individually wrap them. I thaw unwrapped at room temperature. I don't find that they get dry.

Are you baking at home in a standard oven or in a commercial kitchen with larger ovens?

I ask since I just made 360 cupcakes last Friday for a wedding on Saturday, baked filled and frosted in 8 hours with two people working on them. I did this using two large gas ovens that held 2 - 24 cupcake pans each. So that could give you an idea of time needed. But I am not a fan of freezing cupcakes, so I would rather pull a couple of long days in order to serve a fresh cupcake.

I'm having trouble with posting, so sorry if this is a repeat.

I'm baking in a standard home oven. I have two commercial grade 24 cupcake pans. I'm not sure I'd bake 2 in the oven at the same time for baking evenly. Thoughts?

I've been debating the freezing vs baking a few days before. The wedding is on Saturday. So what would the time line look like for that. Bake all day on Thursday and frost on Friday. Thoughts???

Any tips or thoughts regarding the process would be helpful! Thanks.

By rotating your cupcake pans (I move mine from the top rack to the bottom and turn 180 degrees) halfway through they should bake evenly. You may need to increase the baking time by a minute or two since you will have more volume of cake in your oven.

As for the timeline, I think a lot of that depends on what type of cupcakes you are making, are they all the same flavor or are you doing multiple flavors? Are you filling the cupcakes? Doing fancy designs (logos, fondant. etc) on them or just a simple swirl?

Also what type of frosting are you making? For timing something like a whipped ganache might be easiest as you can make the ganache early on then it needs to cool but then you can whip it in your mixer in batches, moving the whipped ganache to a larger bowl and doing multiple batches without having to wash your mixing bowl each time, whereas if you were making a IMBC you would need to start with a clean bowl and mixer each time in order to be able to whip the egg whites.

I freeze cupcakes all the time. I place a dozen on a sheet cake board and wrap in 2 layers of plastic wrap. I freeze for 2-3 weeks only. When it's time to fill & decorate, thaw the cupcakes completely wrapped, Then unwrap and fill/frost as usual.
I make multiple batches of SMBC and freeze also. Thaw in container, beat in mixer and decorate.
I also bake 2 12-cupcake pans at a time in my home oven. I use foil cupcake liners and never have a separating problem.

My cupcakes get raves and are very moist.

Hope this helps.

Hi D1976 - you've gotten numerous good answers here.

Don't be afraid of two rack baking in your home oven. And you can start baking at any time, especially if you are working alone. It would be far easier on you to split it amongst Tues, Wed, and Thurs. Then frost on Friday. For short term freezing, place cupcakes on cake boards or cookie sheets, then wrap and freeze. Stack when the previous layer is solid.

I love cupcakes. Save me one!