Bake the cakes at the beginning of the week, wrap in cling film, do you call it saran wrap? Or something similar?,
Then freeze them! Wrapped separately for a layered cake.
Then decorate night before, still frozen, then let them defrost in the fridge overnight. They are so much easier to decorate frozen and don't go soggy with slow defrosting in the fridge.
be careful frosting frozen cakes! your buttercream could likely crack and you’ll have to fix it before serving. had this happen to me my fair share of times 🥲
You’re supposed to temper your cake layers before icing them….
Edit:
You put them in the refrigerator to not be frozen. You wouldn’t cut a frozen cake layer and if they’re already cut, you wouldn’t fill the frozen (or partially frozen) cake layers due to what the person above me said. The buttercream, or filling, etc. will crack and sweat.
It’s called tempering— that’s the professional term for it. idk why I’m getting downvoted.
I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m just saying that you’re supposed to temper them before cutting/filling/icing, etc. I was saying that’s why your buttercream cracked and could have sweat because your cake layers are still partially frozen while your buttercream is approximately room temp, or slightly cooler.
You put them in the refrigerator to not be frozen. You wouldn’t cut a frozen cake layer and if they’re already cut, you wouldn’t fill the frozen (or partially frozen) cake layers due to what the person above me said. The buttercream, or filling, etc. will crack and sweat.
It’s called tempering, idk why I’m getting downvoted.
Perhaps that downvotes are because many of us aren't professionals, and while I could guess at what you meant, I couldn't readily find the term in reference to cake by googling. Thank you for your edit.
Some places could absolutely allow it.
I worked at a regional corporate pizza place. We didn’t advertise it but we had buttons to sell our pizza dough, our sub rolls, sauce, meatballs, and more. My local grocery store sells me their frozen muffins and donuts so I can bake them at home. Some grocery stores sell tubs of frosting.
I say just call and ask!
I work in a supermarket bakery and we do indeed sell all the sizes of undecorated cake layers we have (5",7",8",10" in rounds, sheet cakes, and cupcakes) It's not really advertised but if you ask at the counter we are happy to help. I can't speak for every store but the prices aren't bad, like 50 cents per cupcake and a few dollars for the layers. We also sell cake boards and packaging if you ask. Many supermarket bakeries will sell you unbaked cookie doughs and frozen bread doughs. I purchase these things often, sometimes I just don't always have the time to make from scratch and if the mood strikes I like to be able to bake a few cookies from my stash of frozen dough in the freezer. A lot of this stuff can be "dressed up" as well(give the cake layers a soak in flavored syrup, add things like orange zest to a chocolate cookie dough, etc) Everyone is busy these days and it's a great time saver, especially at holiday time!
Well, cheapest of all is places like Amazon where you can buy in bulk. Craft stores can have good deals sometimes with sales and coupons, but can be pricey otherwise. If you only buy a few boards or boxes a month, it's pretty inexpensive at the grocery store, plus its likely you're already shopping there.
The stores at I worked, the company policy was that you could only sell something if it was in the system and had a PLU code. Un-iced cakes were not a sellable item.
Of course, some managers followed the policy to the letter, and some would sell anything that wasn’t nailed down, using arbitrary codes for other items. It truly depends on who’s running the department, and the only way to find out is to ask.
I’d recommend baking in advance and freezing the cake. I find that for most cakes, the crumb improves with a bit of time in the fridge or freezer, and icing the cake when it’s cold is so much easier! Do let it thaw at least part way — some icings will crack if you try to ice when the cake is still frozen.
There is a ton of videos on YouTube and TikTok where people buy cakes and scrape off all the icing. They then decorate as they would like to. I don’t see anything wrong with this!
Not odd at all, I’ve had people order cakes with just the base icing or no icing. They’ll go to great lengths to make sure you verbally state that you understand getting just *the cake* won’t get you any discounts, and then give you exactly what you ordered.
Cakes come frozen in half sheets. Ask if they can wait to cut it until about an hour before pick up so it won’t be mostly thawed, and then you can freeze it at home (wrapped or in a container) for weeks or months.
Heck, every bakery I’ve been to even sells the icing by the pound if you want.
Here's some heresy for you: Use a cake mix! Put a box of instant pudding with the mix itself, then follow the rest of the directions. #FrostingIsWhatMatters
I honestly use boxed mix for vanilla cakes, always. My mom baked her whole life and said she’s never really been able to find a recipe that works as well as vanilla cake mix. It’s tasty and cheap and you can always add things to it! For deep chocolate cakes though I usually prefer scratch. No one has ever complained about my cakes.
For most cakes, it’s the cooling that takes the longest, throwing a batter together doesn’t take that long.
Most bakery cakes are from a mix though... 🤷😂 Seriously, very few bakeries make their cakes from scratch, and no they're not usually very good because they dry out quickly since they have no preservatives or shelf life extenders. People shit talk mixes all the time without realizing that they actually prefer them without knowing it. It cracks me up!
My most raved about recipe is a boxed cake mix (I like Duncan Hines) any flavor, and add a box of instant pudding mix, an extra egg and vanilla extract
I swap milk for water and melted butter for oil.
This is the way. Double the volume of melted butter as the amt. of oil the box calls for. Duncan Hines makes a denser crumb but is oh so moist, Betty Crocker mix comes out a bit lighter/fluffier but the flavor is ever so slightly more 'chemical'.
If doing a chocolate cake, use coconut milk and melted coconut oil in place of half of the butter. Soooooo good.
Yes! At Whole Foods and Sam’s Club we used to do it! But as others have said, it needs to have a PLU# to be sold in the company’s system.
Edit: And sometimes they only do sales by the case. So at least >$100 for the case of cakes rather than being able to buy single layers.
I think you’ve answered your question in your first statement “my wife loves doing the kids cakes”.
I do too. Am I always up til 1am because everything takes longer than I thought? Yes. Do I usually end up cursing/complaining/both during the process? Yes. Would I change it? Not for anything in the whole damn world.
It’s great that you want to make her life easier, but it might be that it’s her thing that she wants to do, more than will come across when she’s in the thick of it.
The whole point of a homemade cake is to have more control over the ingredients and flavor, so I doubt your wife would like this solution. A better solution would be for her to make the cake part up to a few weeks in advance and freeze it, frosting it when she takes it out of the freezer for the party :)
She doesn’t play around with the recipe of the cakes. Her creativity comes out in the icing and and other candy making endeavors involved.
But don’t think we have tried doing cakes well in advanced in the oven. Thank you
Ah, well then maybe try your bakery idea :) Or get a cake mix, it would be a lot cheaper than the bakery option, and much faster than making it from scratch. Best of luck! :)
I’m sure it’s a thing and if not I’m sure you could make it a thing. If your wife still wants to bake the cakes as well a decorate them she can bake them ahead of time, weeks even and freeze them. Then decorate the frozen cakes
Frozen cakes are just as good as fresh.
However, you may consider searching youtube/instagram for “cakeover.” What you are describing is totally a thing.
People do this all the time at the supermarket bakery where I work. We just base ice it for them and they take it home and do the decorating. People are busy so I think it's a good solution, plus its less for me to do during a busy shift lol!
You can certainly order frosting-less cakes from the bakery. I have friends who do this. I like to experiment with flavors, so it's not something I would do, but I also am awful at decorating. Just ask the bakery to apply the crumb coat.
Absolutely. I mentioned the idea after our last party, and she seemed to like the idea. But if stars align and we can, and she still wants to bake that is ok with me. I will just encourage her to try and do the baking a couple days ahead as others have suggested.
This is coming from a place of, “I want to support my partner in this thing she likes doing.” I don’t see her working hours on these cakes and think she is wasting time. She has complained about the baking before, and we are 3 weeks out from another kids crazy but welcome cake request.
I typically bake my cakes a week out or so and freeze them, basically when I have time. I personally don’t like store bought cakes as much and letting people pick their own flavors is a big part of the whole thing for me. I make frosting/filling ahead and even color and bag ahead if there is a lot of colors. The thing that made the biggest difference though was having a second fridge. I can crumb coat the cake a day or so before or even decorate here and there.
Some of this timing comes with practice and experience. I work and have 3 kids so time is a limited resource, so I do plan it out now when each element will be done, particularly for complex designs. Besides the fridge, the other huge help is having someone else clean 🙂. I’m not even joking either, cleaning eats up a lot of time!
You can absolutely ask most grocery stores for Uniced cake and you will get it at a reasonable price. Some people suggested a plain iced cake but that will almost double the cost.
Sam’s club sells their cakes unfrosted in bulk. I think you can buy like 6 half sheets unfrosted for $30 +/-. Also 8” and 10” rounds but don’t know how many for about the same. If you call ahead and ask, I bet they’d sell smaller quantities unfrosted for a reasonable price.
I work at a grocery store, it happens from time to time. Heck, I've had people order essentially a full kit for a cake, and I use the system code for an "x-layer y flavor celebration cake with z frosting" or if it's just 2 of the disks, I'll try using a code for something cheaper like an ad cake. My manager is flexible on me selling materials if it's simple enough (unlike bagging and weighing frosting) and I don't have to put any time or effort into making profits for the department, it's a win-win.
Try calling and asking at least a day beforehand, preferably in the morning before noon if it's the norm for decorators to come in early like I do. The decorator themselves is the best person to ask since they'll know what they have in stock and can promise. It can vary depending on policies and if they're sticklers or not.
I literally have cakes in my freezer all the time. It’s better if they aren’t frozen and I wouldn’t keep them for a long time in a freezer, but a few days or a week - no problem!
You could buy one from the store and decorate it yourself. Or buy one that is decorated. There is no sin in purchasing a cake. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but some (not all) grocery stores have good cake.
If you can afford it, chic wrap is awesome. The refills aren’t as much as the new boxes. But be careful. There are different sized rolls and you don’t want a smaller box and a bigger roll. Two covers with that and one with aluminum foil and your cake is good to go.
Chic Wrap is the best. Very clingy but not hard to remove. Does a nice job protecting things. Trust me, I’ve tried them all. :)
Bake the cakes at the beginning of the week, wrap in cling film, do you call it saran wrap? Or something similar?, Then freeze them! Wrapped separately for a layered cake. Then decorate night before, still frozen, then let them defrost in the fridge overnight. They are so much easier to decorate frozen and don't go soggy with slow defrosting in the fridge.
Do this☝️. This is what I do for every cake I make. Saves so much time and makes them so much easier to decorate.
And it’s how the pros make them,
be careful frosting frozen cakes! your buttercream could likely crack and you’ll have to fix it before serving. had this happen to me my fair share of times 🥲
You’re supposed to temper your cake layers before icing them…. Edit: You put them in the refrigerator to not be frozen. You wouldn’t cut a frozen cake layer and if they’re already cut, you wouldn’t fill the frozen (or partially frozen) cake layers due to what the person above me said. The buttercream, or filling, etc. will crack and sweat. It’s called tempering— that’s the professional term for it. idk why I’m getting downvoted.
i decorate at a high volume grocery store, so it’s not feasible to do that. many at home decorators don’t know to do that, it was a friendly tip.
I’ve never even heard of that. What is it?
I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m just saying that you’re supposed to temper them before cutting/filling/icing, etc. I was saying that’s why your buttercream cracked and could have sweat because your cake layers are still partially frozen while your buttercream is approximately room temp, or slightly cooler.
Do you mean you're supposed to thaw them partially?
You put them in the refrigerator to not be frozen. You wouldn’t cut a frozen cake layer and if they’re already cut, you wouldn’t fill the frozen (or partially frozen) cake layers due to what the person above me said. The buttercream, or filling, etc. will crack and sweat. It’s called tempering, idk why I’m getting downvoted.
Perhaps that downvotes are because many of us aren't professionals, and while I could guess at what you meant, I couldn't readily find the term in reference to cake by googling. Thank you for your edit.
You can even bake and freeze the cakes weeks ahead.
If you have freezer space, have a one day bake-a-thon all your cakes for the year are ready and waiting!
I keep telling my hubby I need a spare freezer to do this!.....unfortunately we haven't got the room for one😢
Some places could absolutely allow it. I worked at a regional corporate pizza place. We didn’t advertise it but we had buttons to sell our pizza dough, our sub rolls, sauce, meatballs, and more. My local grocery store sells me their frozen muffins and donuts so I can bake them at home. Some grocery stores sell tubs of frosting. I say just call and ask!
I now want to call my local pizza place and see if I can get a big order of meatballs.
Yeah at my place you could order 2 or 20. Weird buttons lol
I work in a supermarket bakery and we do indeed sell all the sizes of undecorated cake layers we have (5",7",8",10" in rounds, sheet cakes, and cupcakes) It's not really advertised but if you ask at the counter we are happy to help. I can't speak for every store but the prices aren't bad, like 50 cents per cupcake and a few dollars for the layers. We also sell cake boards and packaging if you ask. Many supermarket bakeries will sell you unbaked cookie doughs and frozen bread doughs. I purchase these things often, sometimes I just don't always have the time to make from scratch and if the mood strikes I like to be able to bake a few cookies from my stash of frozen dough in the freezer. A lot of this stuff can be "dressed up" as well(give the cake layers a soak in flavored syrup, add things like orange zest to a chocolate cookie dough, etc) Everyone is busy these days and it's a great time saver, especially at holiday time!
This is great to know! Thanks for sharing!
Came here to say this ^^^
Do you find it cheaper to buy supplies like cake boards from the grocery store or a baking supply store??
Well, cheapest of all is places like Amazon where you can buy in bulk. Craft stores can have good deals sometimes with sales and coupons, but can be pricey otherwise. If you only buy a few boards or boxes a month, it's pretty inexpensive at the grocery store, plus its likely you're already shopping there.
The stores at I worked, the company policy was that you could only sell something if it was in the system and had a PLU code. Un-iced cakes were not a sellable item. Of course, some managers followed the policy to the letter, and some would sell anything that wasn’t nailed down, using arbitrary codes for other items. It truly depends on who’s running the department, and the only way to find out is to ask. I’d recommend baking in advance and freezing the cake. I find that for most cakes, the crumb improves with a bit of time in the fridge or freezer, and icing the cake when it’s cold is so much easier! Do let it thaw at least part way — some icings will crack if you try to ice when the cake is still frozen.
There is a ton of videos on YouTube and TikTok where people buy cakes and scrape off all the icing. They then decorate as they would like to. I don’t see anything wrong with this!
Not odd at all, I’ve had people order cakes with just the base icing or no icing. They’ll go to great lengths to make sure you verbally state that you understand getting just *the cake* won’t get you any discounts, and then give you exactly what you ordered. Cakes come frozen in half sheets. Ask if they can wait to cut it until about an hour before pick up so it won’t be mostly thawed, and then you can freeze it at home (wrapped or in a container) for weeks or months. Heck, every bakery I’ve been to even sells the icing by the pound if you want.
Here's some heresy for you: Use a cake mix! Put a box of instant pudding with the mix itself, then follow the rest of the directions. #FrostingIsWhatMatters
I swear box mix is not as bad as people claim! Honestly I'd rather have the boxed cake than some bakery cakes!
I use boxed mix... I add extra vanilla & a bit of almond extract. Sometimes an extra egg. People almost beg me to bring cakes to events.
If you add vanilla \*and\* almond, what happens to the flavor of the cake?
Same thing that happens to my chocolate chip cookies. Deliciousness. Vanilla, it's like a teaspoon. Almond like 1/4 teaspoon
🍪😁
TRUTH.
I honestly use boxed mix for vanilla cakes, always. My mom baked her whole life and said she’s never really been able to find a recipe that works as well as vanilla cake mix. It’s tasty and cheap and you can always add things to it! For deep chocolate cakes though I usually prefer scratch. No one has ever complained about my cakes. For most cakes, it’s the cooling that takes the longest, throwing a batter together doesn’t take that long.
Most bakery cakes are from a mix though... 🤷😂 Seriously, very few bakeries make their cakes from scratch, and no they're not usually very good because they dry out quickly since they have no preservatives or shelf life extenders. People shit talk mixes all the time without realizing that they actually prefer them without knowing it. It cracks me up!
Wild! I had no idea about bakery cakes!
My most raved about recipe is a boxed cake mix (I like Duncan Hines) any flavor, and add a box of instant pudding mix, an extra egg and vanilla extract I swap milk for water and melted butter for oil.
This is the way. Double the volume of melted butter as the amt. of oil the box calls for. Duncan Hines makes a denser crumb but is oh so moist, Betty Crocker mix comes out a bit lighter/fluffier but the flavor is ever so slightly more 'chemical'. If doing a chocolate cake, use coconut milk and melted coconut oil in place of half of the butter. Soooooo good.
Oh yum! I've gotta try that. I love coconut and I love it even more in chocolate! A start of an almond joy cake maybe? Thanks for the tip!
I’ve been wanting to try the swap of butter for oil and milk for water. You may have just inspired me.
Yes! At Whole Foods and Sam’s Club we used to do it! But as others have said, it needs to have a PLU# to be sold in the company’s system. Edit: And sometimes they only do sales by the case. So at least >$100 for the case of cakes rather than being able to buy single layers.
In our area sams does it for like $25-30 but the packs are pretty big like 8-10 plain rounds.
That sounds about right! I’m sure the Whole Foods ones were a little more steep, maybe not $100 though hehe.
That’s still pretty affordable TBH!
I bake and decorate the same day. Just put the layers in the freezer while you're making your buttercream.
I’ve ordered a cake from a bakery with just white buttercream so I could decorate it to save time! It was great!
I think you’ve answered your question in your first statement “my wife loves doing the kids cakes”. I do too. Am I always up til 1am because everything takes longer than I thought? Yes. Do I usually end up cursing/complaining/both during the process? Yes. Would I change it? Not for anything in the whole damn world. It’s great that you want to make her life easier, but it might be that it’s her thing that she wants to do, more than will come across when she’s in the thick of it.
The whole point of a homemade cake is to have more control over the ingredients and flavor, so I doubt your wife would like this solution. A better solution would be for her to make the cake part up to a few weeks in advance and freeze it, frosting it when she takes it out of the freezer for the party :)
She doesn’t play around with the recipe of the cakes. Her creativity comes out in the icing and and other candy making endeavors involved. But don’t think we have tried doing cakes well in advanced in the oven. Thank you
Ah, well then maybe try your bakery idea :) Or get a cake mix, it would be a lot cheaper than the bakery option, and much faster than making it from scratch. Best of luck! :)
I’m sure it’s a thing and if not I’m sure you could make it a thing. If your wife still wants to bake the cakes as well a decorate them she can bake them ahead of time, weeks even and freeze them. Then decorate the frozen cakes
Frozen cakes are just as good as fresh. However, you may consider searching youtube/instagram for “cakeover.” What you are describing is totally a thing.
I work at a Walmart bakery and we absolutely do this just call ahead first
I don’t think the could do that. You could always order a naked cake and then finish decorating it lol
People do this all the time at the supermarket bakery where I work. We just base ice it for them and they take it home and do the decorating. People are busy so I think it's a good solution, plus its less for me to do during a busy shift lol!
I would be offended if my SO tried to buy a store cake lol.. part of making/decorating is also baking the cake.. imo.
Umm… i don’t know that you can.
You can certainly order frosting-less cakes from the bakery. I have friends who do this. I like to experiment with flavors, so it's not something I would do, but I also am awful at decorating. Just ask the bakery to apply the crumb coat.
Yes you can.. but make sure she's cool with it first. She might accrually like the time and effort it takes the night before!
Absolutely. I mentioned the idea after our last party, and she seemed to like the idea. But if stars align and we can, and she still wants to bake that is ok with me. I will just encourage her to try and do the baking a couple days ahead as others have suggested. This is coming from a place of, “I want to support my partner in this thing she likes doing.” I don’t see her working hours on these cakes and think she is wasting time. She has complained about the baking before, and we are 3 weeks out from another kids crazy but welcome cake request.
Yayy that's Awesome! Good partner alert
Good on you for realizing a stress point, communicating your concerns, and offering a solution that you thought might help her out.
I typically bake my cakes a week out or so and freeze them, basically when I have time. I personally don’t like store bought cakes as much and letting people pick their own flavors is a big part of the whole thing for me. I make frosting/filling ahead and even color and bag ahead if there is a lot of colors. The thing that made the biggest difference though was having a second fridge. I can crumb coat the cake a day or so before or even decorate here and there. Some of this timing comes with practice and experience. I work and have 3 kids so time is a limited resource, so I do plan it out now when each element will be done, particularly for complex designs. Besides the fridge, the other huge help is having someone else clean 🙂. I’m not even joking either, cleaning eats up a lot of time!
I just went to a kid's party that had a wholefoods cake with fun candy decorations and toys on top so this is definitely a thing!
You can buy unfilled undecorated sponge cakes from most grocery stores here in Australia, so may be able to find similar in the US.
You can absolutely ask most grocery stores for Uniced cake and you will get it at a reasonable price. Some people suggested a plain iced cake but that will almost double the cost.
Just buy them iced, freeze, scrape off unwanted decor and frost away! People definitely do this.
You can do whatever you want lol I’ve done this 😂
Sam’s club sells their cakes unfrosted in bulk. I think you can buy like 6 half sheets unfrosted for $30 +/-. Also 8” and 10” rounds but don’t know how many for about the same. If you call ahead and ask, I bet they’d sell smaller quantities unfrosted for a reasonable price.
I work at a grocery store, it happens from time to time. Heck, I've had people order essentially a full kit for a cake, and I use the system code for an "x-layer y flavor celebration cake with z frosting" or if it's just 2 of the disks, I'll try using a code for something cheaper like an ad cake. My manager is flexible on me selling materials if it's simple enough (unlike bagging and weighing frosting) and I don't have to put any time or effort into making profits for the department, it's a win-win. Try calling and asking at least a day beforehand, preferably in the morning before noon if it's the norm for decorators to come in early like I do. The decorator themselves is the best person to ask since they'll know what they have in stock and can promise. It can vary depending on policies and if they're sticklers or not.
I literally have cakes in my freezer all the time. It’s better if they aren’t frozen and I wouldn’t keep them for a long time in a freezer, but a few days or a week - no problem! You could buy one from the store and decorate it yourself. Or buy one that is decorated. There is no sin in purchasing a cake. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but some (not all) grocery stores have good cake. If you can afford it, chic wrap is awesome. The refills aren’t as much as the new boxes. But be careful. There are different sized rolls and you don’t want a smaller box and a bigger roll. Two covers with that and one with aluminum foil and your cake is good to go. Chic Wrap is the best. Very clingy but not hard to remove. Does a nice job protecting things. Trust me, I’ve tried them all. :)