Frozen cakes

I helped a relative of mine decorate a frozen cake (it was part of her wedding cake and it had been frozen for over a year!). She took it out about 24hrs before we decorated it and it thawed out perfectly. The cake was not a sponge cake however, it was a sort of an almond tart that is very popular in Malta and it is a type of cake that is used for special occasions such as weddings, Easter (very popular in Easter), Christenings etc. Thawing time may vary according to the climate of course. The weather in Malta is very hot in summer and mild in winter so 24hrs in advance might not be enough in England since you live in a colder climate. Hope this helps!

I’m not exactly sure why this did this for you. I have been baking for over 26 years. I apprenticed in full line, scratch bakery. We always froze our un-iced cakes in the bakery and I still do it to this day.
I bake my cakes, cool, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze. (I never freeze for more then 10 days)
The day before I need to work on them, I take them from the freezer and put them in the fridge overnight.

The next day I have firm, moist cakes to work with. I truly believe that the freezing makes the cakes more moist.

*I am wondering if your cake batter is a more dense , wet, cake batter like a WASC cake. I just can’t imagine why a cake, would remain frozen solid after sitting out all day.

I’m sorry if I was unable to help, but the above method is what I have been doing all these years and it works for me.
I hope this helps in some sort of way,

Sincerely,
Donna T.

Thankyou both for your replies. I can’t believe a cake was frozen for a year!! I am slightly upset because I have heard that cakes are more moist after being frozen and wanted to see the difference. My cakes are moist to begin with so I thought it would be even better. I’ve never made a WASC cake so I don’t know about the batter consistency, both my red velvet and zebra cake batters were not too thick, not runny and not overly wet. So I just don’t know.

Certainly, I tried freezing the cake but it turned out to be a disaster. I was highly disappointed and never thought about freezing it ever again. As far as I think, I did exactly as mentioned in the recipe online and the cake batter was good enough as required. I am perplexed where did I went wrong?

Well I have to say I’m baffled. As Donna posted…I’ve done this for years. If your cake is very well wrapped with tin foil, it will remain well insulated and will take longer to thaw. After being in the fridge overnight, I remove tin foil and place on my kitchen counter. Now my last cake was a very dense pound cake, and after doing above, I had to place in the micro for 10 second intervals to fully thaw in the middle which was still slightly frozen. Then I cut in half to tort, no problem. As Marlene stated, if your climate is colder….can take longer. You could use your micro to thaw as I did, being careful to do in small increments. If you have a micro. Hope this helps.