I always freeze my cakes because I never have time to do everything at once.

I was thinking of doing a checkerboard and cutting the concentric circles (not using the Wilton one which someone gave me that seems like it wouldn't work well).  I usually frost once the cakes just start to thaw, leaving in a lot of moisture.  

My instinct says to cut after to avoid more surfaces to dry out, but then I would have to wait for it to almost completely thaw, which I guess would be okay.

Anyway, experienced people's input?

Thanks

I don't think it matters.  If you want to go ahead and fashion the checkerboard before you freeze the cake, just be sure it is cold or partially frozen to make cutting easier.

I tried to do this with a room temperature cake and it was a disaster. It fell apart on me. Not saying other people couldn’t do it but it failed epically with me.