Are there any wedding cakes you can freeze?

by Chris
(Edmonton, Alberta)

This is a panic. The wedding couple have no money and I volunteered to make a cake but won't be at the wedding. Is there an iced/decorated wedding cake that can be frozen and then used for the wedding safely or rather that will holdup (won't crack or run or fall apart? Fondant is not an option. Butter icing or gananche are faves. Let me know.


Hi Chris, Here is what I know...Buttercream will most likely end up with some cracking probably some droplets of water when the cold surface meets warmer air. Unless you use a shortening based icing. Here is the recipe for that one on the cake decorating frosting page.

I have not frozen a cake frosted with ganache, but I imagine it would sweat as well, but probably not crack.

Is their a friend that you trust who will be at the wedding that will help you out a little bit with this? Someone will have to take the cake out of the freezer the day or night before to give it time to thaw. Fresh flowers can be added to the cake right before the reception. This would act as a mask if there were any cracks that need to be hidden.

Does the couple have a preference for the cake flavor? My best carrot cake recipe freezes very well and so does this buttermilk chocolate cake recipe. Both can be frosted in cream cheese icing which is less likely to crack.

I would crumb coat the cake first with the cake decorating frosting recipe above first because the cream cheese icing tends to be more transparent. And then use the shortening based icing to decorate with as well.

I made my very first buttercream roses using that cake decorating frosting and froze them on a tray to use later. They held up well.

I hope some of these ideas can help you out with this dilemma.

Please let us know how it turns out if you can. We would love to hear back from you to see if any of these suggestions were helpful or if you thought of another idea.

Good Luck :-)

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Freezing a cake.

by Jen
(Stacy)

I'm making a wedding cake with raspberry filling and buttercream frosting. It's a 3 layer square cake which we intend to stack at the reception hall. We have a little over an hour drive and the wedding is at 4pm. dinner at 6pm.(I am attending the wedding to)

Was wondering if we froze the cakes would they be thawed by serving time if they were taken out of the freezer at 12:30 or if that morning we should put them in the freezer for 3-4 hours prior to transport. I'm not sure if there is a fridge we may be able to put them in till after the ceremony.

What would be your suggestion?

Hi Jen, If they were stacked ahead I would say no. It takes longer for a stacked cake to thaw in the center. But the fact that they will be delivered unstacked makes me think that your cakes will be thawed and ready to serve by the time they cut the cake, which will probably be by 8 or 9:00 pm.

Note: If your cake has fresh fruit in it such as raspberries it will take longer to thaw. In that case you may want to go the other route by placing them in the freezer for a few hours before delivery. Bring lots of extra buttercream to fix any cracks that may occur during delivery, which can happen with frozen cakes that have real butter cream frosting. The butter contacts when frozen.

Hope that helps. Good luck. Would love to see your finished cake and hear all about it.

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Do I have to freeze my cake before hand?

by Sarah
(Mississauga, ON. Canada)

Hi There,
My sister asked me to make her her wedding cake and of course I couldn't say no!! I'm making a white cake filled with custard and strawberries, covered with white fondant.

But the problem is that she is asking me NOT to freeze it before decorating (she wants me to bake it 1 or 2 days before the wedding-which is going to be very hectic for me :( ). so i don't know, like I personally would rather freeze it to balance out my time... what's your advice?

If I do freeze it how long will it take to defrost? Do I decorate it while it's still frozen, or will it make the inside of the cake gooey?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Sarah

Hi Sarah, I freeze virtually all of my cakes. It doesn't affect the cake, unless it's frozen for a really long time and or isn't wrapped well. Make the cakes at the beginning of the week, wrap them and freeze.

Fill, crumb coat and either refreeze or refrigerate. (strawberries and custard will be better without refreezing, so in this case you should refrigerate the cakes.) Then once the buttercream is firmed up again you can do the final frosting and decorating.

With strawberries and custard you will need to do a dam of buttercream around the edges before filling. This will act as glue and to hold the soft filling inside the cake. I have had instances where the custard starts to seep through. So make a thick dam of the butter cream frosting to help prevent this from happening.

I have never had any complaints about my cakes not being fresh. People are under the impression that the cake is not fresh if it has been frozen. I find the opposite to be true. The cakes stay fresher longer and are much easier to work with. Your job is hard enough as it is.

The cakes will not get soggy either as long as you wait until they cool off completely before wrapping and freezing. .

As far as defrosting the cake. It will fully defrost in a few hours in the refrigerator with the filling and crumb coat. This will keep it moist and delicious and give the flavors time to really open up.

Good luck

Comments



So glad :-)
by: Lorelie

I'm so glad that it my advice helped. I can't wait to see the finished decorated cake.

Thank You
by: Sarah

Thank you so much for your really helpful tips... i will for sure post it :)

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Aug 30, 2015
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starstarstarstarstar 		Freezing... How do you wrap the,? Foil?
by: Pam

Freezing... How do you wrap them? Heavy foil?
Sep 16, 2015
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starstarstarstarstar 		Wrapping cakes
by: Lorelie

Hi Pam Wrap your cakes in plastic wrap then wrap them in either foil or another layer of plastic wrap for extra protection.
Dec 10, 2020
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starstarstarstarstar 		Awesome page really learning alot !!
by: Carmen

Good evening .

It's my first time doing a wedding cake ,I'm making it for my cousin I would just like to know if it is possible to crumb coat and put a final coat on and freeze the cake and a day before addicting to make some detailed lines in it please help .

Thank you so much .

Carmen .

So sorry Carmen. I am back after a gap in management here. I hope you were able to get your answer and that your cake was a success. The issue with freezing is when you take the cake out of the freezer into warmer temp it can create droplets of moisture. Your piping ay not stick to it. AS long as you slowly bring it to room temp you can do that yes.

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Freezing Wedding Cake Ahead of Time?

by Elizabeth Labare
(Killeen Texas)

Hello,
I am the mother of the bride making the wedding cake. I am looking to find out how far ahead of time I can make the cake and have it still taste good.

They want a 4 tier double layered cake. One layer chocolate, one layer strawberry. They would prefer Fondant icing, but I can do Butter cream. The wedding is June 12, 2011. It would be flat iced then small squiggly lines done on the cake. The cake will NOT be stacked as most wedding cake, they will stand free of each other.

HOW far ahead can I make the cake??? Oh, yeah I am also cooking ALL the food too ( with help from her Aunts). Which Icing would work the best for freezing and keep the cake fresh??

Please help this mom stop stressing, so I can plan as much as possible ahead of time. I want to enjoy my daughters wedding.

Hi Elizabeth,
Good news! The wedding cakes can be made 4-5 weeks ahead, filled, crumb coated with buttercream then wrapped and frozen. As long as you wrap them very well, and then put them in plastic bags-regular garbage bags will do. Get as much air out as possible, then place them in the freezer.

I recommend buttercream in this case.
Up to 5 days ahead you can put the final coat of buttercream on the cakes and even decorate them. At this point you should refrigerate the cakes and let them thaw inside the final coat of buttercream.

Once the butter cream hardens in the fridge, you can lightly cover them with plastic wrap to keep the odors away (make sure you have no strong odors in the fridge). And or box each cake. (optional)

You can do fondant too but that will only work if you wait until, no more than two days prior to the wedding day. Once you put the fondant on the cakes you will need to box them and leave them outside of the refrigerator.

Buttercream will make your job a little less stressful. Having the cakes on individual stands will make your job easier as well.

Good luck and please send in a picture of the finished cake. We would love to hear how you manage this. Working with food is always more work than you think it's going to be. Get as much help as possible. Good luck!

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Freezing cake then applying fondant?

by Meagan Jones
(Firth, ID)

Hi, I have made a few wedding cakes and always seem to run into the same little problem. I bake the cake, then wrap and freeze, and when I am ready to cover with fondant I get it out of the freezer and cover with buttercream, followed by covering with fondant.

The problem that I seem to run into is that the cake sweats and gets really gooey on top, where the moisture of the frozen cake is seeping through. The cake even sometimes sinks in the middle, or gets air bubbles. How do I avoid this? should I let the cake defrost completely before covering.

I find it easier to cover a frozen cake because it is a little more solid, but I would rather my finish product look better if defrosting is the secret. Any suggestions. Thank you.
Meagan

Hi Meagan,
Yes I think it is best to thaw the cake a bit before putting the fondant on. I also prefer to work with a frozen cake and have had the same issue sometimes.

The cake can still be cold when working with it just not frozen solid. I would recommend crumb coating and then refrigerating the cakes to let them thaw to the refrigerated temperature, then putting the final buttercream coat on followed by the fondant.
Hope this helps!

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Freezing, frosting, filling steps?

by Meghan
(Seattle, WA)

First time making a wedding cake!!

I just want to make sure I am planning my steps correctly. I am planning to bake, level, split and freeze the cake this weekend (7/23/11). Next Saturday (7/30/11), the day before the wedding, I plan to remove them from the freezer and fill and frost them. I am using a mousse-like filling with lemon curd, whipped cream and white chocolate. The frosting is just a buttercream. The bride does not want fondant.
Please help me make sure everything comes out okay. Should I fill before freezing (I'm not sure the filling would thaw out well), or wait until they're frozen?

Thanks so much for your help!!

Hi Meghan,

Here is a good post on the entire process.

The Wedding cake questions and answers page has a few great posts abut freezing and filling etc. I have them in order in a table of contents format.

You can fill the cakes either way although having never used that particular filling you may not want to fill and then freeze. I usually freeze the cakes a bit and then fill and crumb coat rewrap and put back in the freezer until a day or two before the wedding.

The only negative to freezing the cake solid and then filling, is the weight of the layers. They may push down on the filling. But if you are careful and maybe defrost them a little you should be fine. Piping a thick layer of buttercream around the edges before filling will also help to keep the filling and layers in place. Hope that helps you decide on your freezing, frosting and filling steps.

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How can I separate a frozen cake?

by Brenda
(Illinois)

Hi Lorelie,

I'm really sorry to be such a bother but I have another problem now that I hope you can help me with.

I used 3 inch pans because I bought them before I found your site, and when the cakes were done and cooled I split them in 2 layers instead of baking 2 cakes to put on top of each other.

My problem is that after I split them, I put them back together and froze them that way (without anything between the layers)

They do not come break apart!! Is there a way to separate them? If I let them thaw will they separate again?..and can they be re-frozen after that? Geez, I'm such a dummy!!

Thanks for all your help,

Brenda

ANSWER Hi Brenda, This is a sticky situation :-)Yes let your cakes thaw out a little bit (you may not have to thaw them all the way) then take a long knife or a cake knife if you have one, run it in between the two layers. That should do the trick. You can refreeze them. It's best if you do not have to thaw them all of the way before refreezing.

Here is what I usually do. After you cool your cake layers put a cardboard round in between each layer, then wrap the whole thing up in plastic wrap before freezing them. Or wrap each layer in plastic wrap without cardboard rounds and freeze them separately.

An alternative to that method is to wrap your cakes and chill them well, then fill, crumb coat, wrap and freeze. That is my preference. I am going to add this post to the freezing cakes page so that all of the relevant information is in one place for all to see.

No problem with asking lots of questions, that is what Wedding Cakes For You is all about.

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