I am settling a cake overnight, with the ceramic tile on top. It occured to me I have rarely seen people mention if they wrap the cake tightly in plastic wrap (then tile on top) or loosely in plastic wrap.

I would think it should be loosely wrapped, like draped, so the air can escape.  Someone clarify? Would appreciate it! Thanks a lot!

Hi, you actually wrap it tight. Not loose, like draping. Wrap it with cling wrap, etc.

Ok, and how does that allow the air to be released though? I thought the point was to allow gentle settling of the cake layers to squeeze air out from the filling/dam etc.

I have never understood the reasoning behind this.  Working in a busy bakery no one have the time to let cakes settle yet there is seldom the problems some people attribute to this.  To me all one is going to get is a cake that is heavy and not feather light :(

I have never had to let a cake settle either, and no bulging or blowouts here. But I work with SMBC or ganache, and am fairly certain that those problems are experienced by users of shortening creams, stuff with powdered sugar. Seems to me like meringue bc users are fairly immune to it. I am anyways...whew! I fill, ice it right away, and go about my business. 

I think AZCouture is right.  I always had blowout issues with ABC so I started weighting my cakes to settle.  Kept doing this out of habit when I switched to SMBC.  One day I forgot, and had no blowouts... so I decided to try again to see if it was a fluke.  Nope!  Never had to weight my cakes again when using SMBC :)

A

If I let a cake settle overnight, I just crumb coat it and leave it sit at room temp.  In the morning, if there's a bulge I just scrape it away and finish ice the cake.  So far so good.

If I don't have overnight, I crumb coat the cake, put a piece of parchment on top and sit the tile on it for a few hours, scape away any bulge and finish ice.

I never 'wrap' cakes unless the layers are being frozen. 

ASame here, i only use SMBC (exept for cream cheese frosting) and never had to let the cake settle and never had a blow out. I've baked and decorated cakes the same day, no prob. Whew!

AI let my cakes settle overnight in the fridge. I wrap them with saran wrap. I would consider it a tight wrap. I pull out the plastic wrap, drap it over the cake and then press it against the cake. It isn't so tight that air can't get out. I don't think saran wrap will get that tight on a cake.

A[quote name="mattyeatscakes" url="/t/778116/wrap-tight-or-loose-to-settle#post_7537843"]Same here, i only use SMBC (exept for cream cheese frosting) and never had to let the cake settle and never had a blow out. I've baked and decorated cakes the same day, no prob. Whew!

A[quote name="AZCouture" url="/t/778116/wrap-tight-or-loose-to-settle#post_7538058"] I do everything in one day for simpler cakes too. Just too lazy to work ahead sometimes. And nothing gets rushed, I'd never do that to someone's order. This was baked the morning of the event. I mean, there's really nothing to a design like this, certainly a fondant covered and detailed cake would not be done in one day. [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3267882/width/200/height/400[/IMG][/quote]

Beautiful cake! :)

When you're a mom with a 6 month old infant and 2 yr old toddler, time management is out the door! Hahaha just made this yesterday, took me till 4am but baked, made the smbc and cream cheese filling, filled and iced, decorated and stacked all in one night! Started at 10pm! Omg! Never again! I wanted to cry out of exhaustion..

[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3268544/width/200/height/400[/IMG]