Why would you want to know how to freeze a cake? Well, there are several steps to making a cake: baking, assembling, frosting, and decorating. Sometimes it’s not possible to fit all of that into the day before an occasion or event. In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to make a cake in advance and how to freeze a cakefor months without sacrificing the flavour or the appearance.
After finishing your cake, put the whole thing into the freezer. Make sure there’s a big enough flat space so that the cake is level. Also check that there's nothing touching it around the sides. Leave it in the freezer for one hour like this.
Meanwhile, lay out four pieces of plastic wrap like saran wrap or cling film. Make an asterisk shape, crossing the pieces over opposite each other so that they all overlap in the middle. The pieces need to be about three times longer than the width of your cake. If your cake is 8 inches like mine, you’ll need each piece of plastic wrap to be about 24 inches or 6cm long.
After an hour, take your cake out of the freezer and place it in the middle of this plastic wrap. If you touch the frosting it should be very firm, not sticky, and this coldness will protect the frosted cake. I use my 4 Minute Buttercream for all of my cakes and it freezes wonderfully!
Fold each piece of the plastic wrap over the cake. The reason for using so many pieces is because the cake needs to be completely sealed. This way none of the moisture of the freezer can get to it.
If the cake isn’t sealed properly, condensation droplets will form on the outside of the frosting which will make the colours of the frosting and decorations run. It can also change the flavour of your frosting.
The hour that you left the cake unwrapped in the freezer isn’t long enough for any moisture in the freezer to cling to the cake or affect it. However, it is long enough to make the frosting very firm. Now it won't get damaged by the pressure of the plastic wrap being wrapped around it. The wrapped cake can go back into the freezer for up to two months!
24 hours before serving the cake, take it out of the freezer. This next step is very important: move it to the fridge. Then 2-4 hours before serving it, take it out and put it on the counter or table.
Putting the cake in the fridge is ESSENTIAL. If you move a cake straight from the freezer to room temperature, the drastic change in temperature will cause condensation all over the frosting. Any colour you’ve used in the decorations will run down the cake and stain it. That's what happened after moving this cake from the freezer to room temperature without the fridge step in the middle to let the cake thaw gradually:
Leave the plastic wrap on the cake for 30 minutes to an hour after talking it out of the fridge. This will prevent condensation as the cake warms up to room temperature. After 30 minutes to an hour the frosting will still be firm. That means that when you unwrap the cake, you won’t damage it as you peel the plastic wrap off.
At this point you can add any final details, like anything metallic which would lose its shine in the freezer. You can also do any touchups, like this piped line up here which I must have knocked in the freezer. Now the cake is ready to transport or serve!
I hope this tutorial has been useful! For more tips and tricks and HUNDREDS of cake decorating techniques and designs, visit my cake school on www.BGB.com.
You can also watch a video of this tutorial on how to freeze a cake:
