How to Wrap, Freeze and Defrost Your Wedding Cake
Posted on 21 September 2010
I am so excited! This is my 100th post. Thank you so much for reading, commenting and giving me ideas for new posts and recipes. As it’s a special post I thought I would let you into a special part of my life. Enjoy!
As I mentioned in my Labor Day Menu Ideas post my hubbie and I recently had our first anniversary. Somehow, we have been so busy that we haven’t had a chance to sit down, plan ahead and pick a day to defrost and eat a slice of our wedding cake. As most couples still do we froze the top layer of our cake to eat one year on, without any real research into the freezing or defrosting of the cake. I have eaten enough freezer burnt ice cream to know that wrapping the cake tightly was advantageous but when it came to defrosting I found a lot of misinformation online so I thought it would make the ideal informative post!
One of the first things that I had picked out for the wedding was the cake. Even before I was wearing my engagement ring I knew who I dreamt of baking my cake. Ron Ben-Israel. He is simply a cake baking genius and is the absolute best when it comes to weddings (I mean his website is weddingcakes.com), he books up months in advance and his cakes are the most gorgeous cakes I have ever seen and of course tasted! On one of my first dates with my hubbie, we had attended a corporate birthday party where one of Ron’s cakes were served. It was an almond cake with vanilla buttercream and it was absolutely divine. As everyone was leaving and we were one of the last there, I asked one of the waiters what was happening to the remainder of the cake. I was told it was being thrown away after the party had cleared out. Knowing this to be a crime against cake, I decided to give the remaining untouched half a home in my refrigerator…
Through some fabulous twist of kismet, we were lucky enough to have him make our cake for our wedding last year (thank you Mum and Dad!). Whenever we went for our tastings (you know me, there had to be more than one tasting), I was always astounded at how fabulous everything tasted and loved to watch the cakes being assembled in the workshop. One of the many amazing things about Ron’s cakes are everything on the cake, from the ribbons, the monograms, the exquisite flowers, are all edible!
Just a few ideas for all you brides to be out there… I love the way fondant creates a perfectly smooth surface but I don’t love the way it tastes. One solution is to roll the fondant very, very thin and lay it over the buttercream and sponge. You get the perfect surface but without the gummy taste! I had my fondant dyed a light champagne color to match my dress.
We had a multi-layer cake so we took full advantage of the flavors we could have. We had alternating cake types for each layer. The first type was a white almond sponge cake with hazelnut praline crunch and blackberry buttercreams and the second was a vanilla sponge cake with a passion fruit and lime buttercream with a white chocolate cream filling.
Notes: I know that many people leave for honeymoon the next morning so you can ask a family member or close friend to wrap, freeze and store it for you until you return. The whole process does not take too long though, I wrapped mine the morning after, with my head still full of hairpins, attempting to get the cake and my dress back to our apartment before rushing to the airport. I had a very sweet bellman bring up foil and cling wrap and made him stand in our room, holding the cake while I ran around it with wrap and foil. It can be done!
Method for wrapping and defrosting your cake.
1. Place cake in refrigerator the night of the wedding and leave to cool overnight.
2. The next morning, make sure that you wrap your cake very tightly. Wrap the cake so no air can touch the surface with three separate layers of cling wrap. Follow this with a layer of foil, again very tightly wrapped. If you have a cake box, place the wrapped cake inside. If not, simply place the wrapped cake at the back or the side of your freezer.
3. Wait one blissful year, and pull out the cake from its’ deep freeze. Unwrap the cake and remove and discard the wrap and the foil. Rewrap the cake loosely with waxed paper and then cling wrap. Place wrapped cake into the refrigerator overnight.
4. Leave the cake in the fridge until a couple of hours before you want to eat, 2-4 hours. At which point remove the cake and place it on your countertop and let it come to room temperature.
5. Cut the cake with a cake knife or a serrated knife. Enjoy and toast again to your married life!
54 responses to How to Wrap, Freeze and Defrost Your Wedding Cake
[…] exquisite cake made by Ron (for pictures and info on wrapping and defrosting that top tier, see this post). After making and eating that cake, I decided the vanilla cake itself had the perfect qualities […]
Thank you I am going to defrost ours now for our one year anniversary tomorrow! Let you know how it goes although ours is not wrapped on the inside just the outside box.
Hi Sherry, Congratulations and Happy Anniversary! I hope you had a lovely evening and your cake with just as delicious as your wedding day! Vienna*
Thank you very much for your detail on how to freeze the wedding cake. This is the first time doing a fondant wedding cake and I wanted to be able to explain to the bride on on to freeze it correctly
Thanks for this advice!
I just set our cake out for our anniversary tomorrow! Thanks for blogging, I definitely needed someone to point me in the right direction when it came to defrosting!
I got married 3 months ago and froze my cake in the box without wrapping it. I completely did not think of a proper way of freezing it!!! What should I do now???? Please let me know on e-mail! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Kathy, I thought I would reply here as I have a few emails like this and want to put this up. Once the cake is frozen, you can try to tightly wrap with foil first and then cling wrap to make sure no air touches the surface but it is more important to do this when the cake is put in the freezer initially. Freezer burn sets in as the cake is freezing and the process continues the longer the item is in the freezer. Wrapping will stop this process from continuing if wrapped tightly enough but, sadly, will not reverse it. Also, follow the directions for defrosting to minimize any other damage to the cake.
*Just remember that the cake is a symbol of your wedding day, the big thing to celebrate is making it through year 1 of married life!
Happy cooking or defrosting in this case, Vienna*
My top tier has been in the freezer for 7 months and also isn’t wrapped. I did not know anything about freezing my weddig cake, let alone how to do it. I hope it’s not ruined. Is there anything I can do now??
Hi Katty, sorry for the slow reply. You could try to wrap the cake in foil and cling wrap to prevent further freezer burn but sadly most freezer burn occurs when the frozen item is first in the freezer. You are so close to your anniversary now that I would try not to worry about it and just enjoy the fact that you and your hubs made it through the first crazy year 🙂 Happy Anniversary for February! Vienna*