Can I frost a frozen cake?

by Jodi Berndt
(Gladstone, Michigan)


Question

Hi - I'm curious if I can frost a frozen cake with buttercream icing or will the moisture from the cake unthawing crack the frosting?

Answer
Hi Jodi,
Great question! There is always a risk of cracking with buttercream that is made with real butter. Even refrigerated cakes have a tendency to crack when lifting from the fridge and in transporting.

That being said I still prefer the buttercream using real butter because it so much better tasting than the artificial frosting or icing made of shortening.

You will lesson the chances of this happening if you use the Italian meringue buttercream recipe here.

Here is what I do to reduce the chances even more of cracking.

After baking, wrapping and freezing, fill and frost(a crumb coat)and refreeze if you will not be using the cake immediately.

When you are ready to finalize the icing remove the cake from the freezer and let it defrost to refrigerator temperature.

It's best to work in a cool kitchen because the buttercream will sweat if you take it from cold to hot. This makes it very difficult to frost.(If this happens rough up the crumb coating a little.)

Now you can frost your cake. And refrigerate it.
Be careful when moving the cake. It's always best to use a strong base for your cakes to lesson the stress to the cakes when you move them, especially a wedding cake.

If your cake does crack wait until it comes to room temp and fill in the cracks with fresh buttercream.

I hope this helps.








Click here to read or post comments

Return to Cake Icing Questions.

This article was printed from Wedding-Cakes-For-You.com

Print Article
Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.