Regarding Refrigeration

Somewhere out there is a bride with an Aunt Joelene. She thinks her aunt has her wedding cake under control.

But she doesn't know what I know.

Hi Mary, I'm Joelene, I have a few questions, if I make a wedding cake with buttercream frosting how many days will it stay fresh in the fridge. And the same if its a fondant cake how long will it stay fresh in fridge.

And a second email...

Hi mary, the situation is I'm makin my neices wedding cake and groom. She gets married on a sat. I also am a nail artist and I'm doing the bridal parties nails on thurs. so I was hoping it would be ok to make cakes tue and wed and refrigerate. Do you think it will not be good do do that. 

Also is there a website to figure out all the cake sizing, measurements, how much frosting I'll need for the sizes of cakes I'm making ect. 

I'm not a professional but it's passion of mine to make cakes so I'm always guessing. And I'm trying to figure out all needs for the cake because I need to pack n bring everything caus I'll be driving 8 hours to my neices. Does that make sense?

Ok Joelene, let's talk about refrigeration...

1. Refrigeration generally dries out a cake, so unless the icing requires refrigeration, I don't recommend storing a buttercream covered cake in the fridge to keep it fresh. Cream cheese icing, whipped cream, and certain fillings (especially fresh fruit) SHOULD be refrigerated so they won't spoil. Keeping the icings safe is more important than keeping the cake moist.


2. We sometimes put cakes in the refrigerator. We do it for one of two reasons... Either to firm up the buttercream and lessen the probability of damage during transportation. Or to firm up the cake slightly before icing and stacking.


3. The best way to prolong the freshness of a cake is to wrap it as soon as it has cooled and put it in the freezer. Take it out of the freezer at least a couple of hours before icing it, or the night before. And LEAVE IT WRAPPED IN PLASTIC until you are ready to ice it.


4. Fondant covered cakes should not be refrigerated or frozen unless absolutely necessary. As the cake comes back to room temperature, condensation is likely to form and damage the clean look of the fondant (not to mention make it sticky). Cakes with lots of colored buttercream are also at risk from condensation damage, as dark colors sometimes feather, bleed, or even drip down the side of the cake. Yucky!

So let me summarize this for you. If you bake and decorate the cake on Tuesday and Wednesday, then refrigerate it, it may look fine, but it's not going to be fresh. After an eight hour trip to the wedding, it may not even look good.

If we were making this cake in the bakery, we might bake it on Tuesday or Wednesday, but we'd freeze the layers until Friday. Then ice and decorate it to be fresh on Saturday. I would never volunteer to make a cake requiring an eight hour drive unless I had a place at the destination where I could ice, decorate, and stack the cake.

With regard to your other questions. May I suggest this great invention called The Internet. There is a company called Google that lets you type a question and you'll get all kinds of responses. Usually the most popular ones are at the top of the list, but you can get opinions from lots of sources. You might try typing "How much icing do I need for a cake?" or "How much cake do I need to serve 100 people?" You'll be amazed how easy it is.

Comments

[The Refrigeration School]

Refrigeration is in fact a wide field which does consider more than just refrigerators, which are in fact very important in our every days life. By the way I have learned recently the fact that the first refrigerator has been invented in Sweeden. Funny, Sweeden being a chilly country.

[plumbing supplies]

We should know what and when foods should be put on our fridge. Most of them will leave a smelly thing on your fridge once overdue on staying there.

[plumbing]

There are a lot of refrigeration units that are available in the market today. These units are different from each other and at the same time used for different purposes.