This is my first time posting anything, but I've been reading the forum for a couple years now and have learned so much from everyone. I have a full-time day job and bake cakes part time. I have a 10" round cake due Saturday morning and since I work full time, I have to do everything on a timeline. The issue is that we just moved into a house and I have been battling sugar ants. I think I've gotten it taken care of, at this point, as I haven't seen any this week. However, I must have PTSD from them because I'm terrified to leave anything out on my counter or table for fear the ants will come marching in. I never keep my cakes in the fridge normally. I had frozen my cakes and let them thaw in the fridge yesterday, instead of the counter like I usually do, just in case the ants came back. So, last night I stacked, filled and crumb coated them. I covered the cake in saran wrap and then put in a cake box and covered that in saran wrap and put it back in the fridge (which I normally never do). So here are my questions:

1. How bad do you think that will dry out my cake?

2. Tonight I have to cover it in fondant and I REALLY do not want to put it back in the fridge with fondant on it. I had an idea that I could just put it in the oven (turned off, of course), just to keep it in a sealed environment that no possible ants could get into. Has anyone tried this?

It's embarrassing to admit I was battling ants, I clean like a maniac, so I don't know why they kept coming in. Anyway any thoughts on this would be much appreciated.

I always tort, fill and wrap my cake in saran wrap and then wrap in a food safe bag (I purchased a roll of 100 from a store online) then I put it in the fridge overnight to settle. So the answer to question # 1 is no it will not dry out the cake. 

I never store fondant covered cakes in the fridge. I don't think the oven is a good idea either. Maybe look into the food safe bags and tie it up well. Doubling just to be sure. 

All though it is embarrassing, things like this are out of your hands. Best of luck!!

Hope this helps!

Heidi 

Great idea! Thank you so much! I'm going to search for a large food bag to cover it with this afternoon and hopefully I'll get lucky and find something. ;)

I am off the charts about any insects. It doesn't mean your kitchen isn't clean...they have a port of entry. Get a can of insect spray and spray on the exterior...around the door ledge and around the base of the windows.. this will 'uninvite'  them.

I had trouble with them earlier this year..it can happen even with a very clean house.  I used 2 Terro liquid ant bait traps (about $1 each in Home Depot garden dept.) and they were mostly gone in 2 days, gone completely in 4.  I like that better than spraying around the entire outside of my house since it only targets the colony of ants doing the invading.

Oh, and if you google you can find a number of substances you can make a circle of around your cake which they aren't likely to get past (chalk, cinnamon, coffee ground, pepper, vaseline, etc.).  Or you can put the cake on a cake plate sitting in a tray or bowl of water, (or make a cake plate with a plate or board on top of a can or something in a container of water).

I also use terro, that stuff WORKS!!