I'm a hobby decorator (I say decorator cause I don't actually like baking the cakes) and I normally freeze my cakes before decorating them, but I was wondering if I could torte and fill the cake and then do the buttercream layer, chill in The fridge till its hardened the buttercream, wrap in glad wrap then freeze?

Then defrost in the fridge over night before covering and decorating with fondant?

I have no idea if this is possible or would work, does anyone do this or is the time saved not worth the inferior results?

Yes, your idea will work just fine.  There should be no inferior results.

I do this often with SMBC and it works great!

Maybe someone can explain how you freeze a whole decorated cake and have it not taste like freezer funk?.......I have tried a couple times and it just tastes icky to me.  so I am obviously doing something wrong. Sigh.    (The buttercream picks up every funk like a magnet......I won't even store cakes in my kitchen fridge, I have a seperate fridge in my garage just for cake and I keep some baking soda open inside JUST in case because I am so paranoid of my cake picking up gross tastes)  It would be beneficial to be able to freeze things so that I am not all jammed up when I have multiple projects 

nzcakegirl -- yes i freeze my torted filled cakes all the time -- i've tested all my recipes and no worries -- everybody does it different but i also just whip my cakes out of the freezer and start icing them too -- i don't defrost first --

mccantsbakes -- i share your paranoia because i once bought a used $75 freezer just to house a massive cake i was doing --

now here's where i seem to differ from most of our other freezer loving posters -- when i remove the cakes i quickly unwrap and brush off any ice crystals so that that condensed water does not enter my cake -- peeps say, 'defrost while still wrapped so condensation only appears/disappears from wrappings' -- well how would they know if it melted back into their cake -- cakes are so porous they just suck up the moisture and since they are sitting there for a while it's not noticeable later -- because i mostly always have ice crystals to brush off mine -- so idk -- but that's always worked for me --

so i encase my cakes twice in plastic wrap then slide them into those reynolds roasting bags like you use for turkeys or beef roasts -- if the cake is real big i tape two bags together and you can reuse these too -- plus i remove any possible offending odorous other foods -- i don't mind wasting an item or two if need be -- the cake comes first -- but i'm careful not to go big grocery shopping before doing a cake either -- sometimes i use an ice chest to store the smelly stuff in --

plus you can get a cute little chest freezer for around a hundred dollars brand new from lowe's so there's that too -- i saw them at sam's club too this summer -- probably most appliance departments --

yes freezers are wonderful tools for bakers -- best to you

I have a dedicated small cake freezer also.  I also noticed right away that it works better than the frostless type of freezer attached to the fridge.  When I used to freeze cakes in the frostless freezer it worked best to put them in a plastic cake box like tupperware.

I have used a home frig/fzr and a dedicated one and don't recall there ever being a taste problem.  You would think over 30+ yrs if there was *someone* (customer) would have complained! Everybody's taste buds are different as I have said repeatedly. I bet if you came to me for a taste test and didn't know any of the cakes had been fzn you would not be able to pick out  which one was.  I truely believe it's all in your mind.  I have often just 'thrown' a layer in a plastic bag and put it in the fzr for as much as 2 weeks and no one knew - or at least complained.   Could it be that you have things in y our frig/fzr uncovered or are very stronge odored?  Maybe as K8 mentioned there was a smell in the unit before you got it or has developed since. 

You can easily freeze a completely decorated cake and it will taste like it was freshly made once defrosted.

Box the finished cake in a cardboard box. Wrap the box in several layers of plastic wrap and a layer of foil. Freeze.  24 hrs. b/4 serving, place the wrapped box in the fridge for the cake to defrost.  Several hours b/4 serving, place the wrapped box on the counter.  The cardboard box will absorb condensation, so it won’t settle back on the cake.  Right before serving, remove the cake from the box.

As for freezing just baked layers or crumb coated tiers, I wrap them well in plastic wrap and place them in zip lock or bakery bags.  I’ve never had them pick up any odors.  When I defrost them, I unwrap the layer or tier, and place it on a cooling rack.  I take the plastic wrap and loosely drape it over the cake, but allowing air to circulate from under the cooling rack.  Doing this, I have never had an issue with odors or mushy cake.