Advice Needed on Covering a Frozen Cake

Hi Prima Cakes! I cover all of my cakes cold – ganache or buttercream. I like them cold so I can man handle my fondant for sharper corners. ;) I rub them with a tiny amount of shortening and apply the fondant. The shortening will help the fondant adhere but not melt the sugar like water. Hope this helps! ;)

Hey SB. I actually cover all my cakes cold too but from the refrigerator not the freezer. Just wondering if the thawing process would have a bigger effect on it than just the coming to room temp process. Thanks for the advice though :)

I’ve covered my cakes cold too like SB, but never “frozen”. Be worth making a small trial cake, freeze and cover. I’ve thought I’d try it too…just to see the outcome…

I recommend you not to cover frozen cakes because the fondant will get so humid and sticky that you will ruin de decoration.
Any product you take out of the freezer loses a lot of water, well the same happens with the cakes, the ganache will be hard but a lot of water will be on the outside of the cake, and you need to dry it very well before you cover it, you can use paper napkins.
if you are going to use frozen cakes i recommend you to defrost them at least 4 hours at room temperature before covering. But of course it depends on the size of the cake, can be more time.
Hope it helps Ü (Sorry for my english)

Biscuit you English is perfect. Thanks for the advice.

Better not to do it frozen, because of the humidity, but if you make shure the ganache layer is nice and thick, and leave i in the fridge overnight, it should be nice and firm. What type of chocolate and what ratio do you use?

Mind vol taart. Thanks for the advice. I actually decided to use a pound cake recipe to give me a firm cake under the ganache.

I don’t recommend covering a frozen cake or even one that has been refrigerated longer than 15 minutes as you risk a blow out in your fondant. As cake returns to room temperature it will release gases and any trapped air will be trying to escape which can result in a huge air bubble developing under your fondant. This is more likely to occur in summer. But trust me it is heart breaking to see your perfectly covered cake develop one of these bubbles many hours later.

Christeen, what do you recommend to do with a cake in summer? I had bubbles in the past.

The only thing I can recommend for summer is air conditioning. Put cake in fridge until ganache is set but cake not chilled completely. I have had to do a cake here in Australia on a 44 degree day and all I did was kept putting the cake back in fridge for 15 minute intervals to set ganache between coats. I left it in an air conditioned room once covered in ganache to set up then covered in fondant and kept it in the coolest room of the house when air conditioning was off (ie night). The thing to avoid is not to chill cake to centre but just set the ganache. Some people have special fridges that have humidity control so they are able to set their fridge so the cake is kept cool but that no condensation occurs.