How Far In Advance Can You Bake Cakes? | When To Start Decorating Cakes

in this video i'm answering one of your  questions about my cake decorating timeline hi it's Karolyn i'm a professional cake decorator  and on this channel i share my tips and tricks   and ways that i bake and decorate cakes to  help you along your journey so if you like   to join me hit subscribe and the bell so you  can get notified whenever i release a new video so i've been putting out there in my videos  if you guys have ideas for videos that you   would like me to do to leave them in the comments  and i actually had one which i printed out here   from pamela commented on one of my videos and  she asked i would love to hear how you manage   your cake decorating schedule how many orders do  you take per week when do you consider yourself   booked how far in advance you make cakes, fondant  decorations and what day you start decorating to   ensure freshness so that's a lot so i have some  notes so i can remember to go over everything so in pennsylvania it is a law that when you work  from home you must have separate refrigerators   than your main refrigerator for your cakes so i  never co-mingle my home food with my work food   everything is separate i have two refrigerators so  it is all based on what my refrigerators can hold   is how many cakes that i will take on during  a week during a certain week usually i have   at least three and i could go up to 10  depending on the sizes however if i do 10   i might end the week in tears and a little  frustrated i mean i it happens right i mean   let's be honest it gets a little stressful if  you take on way too many however some weeks   people just need cakes and you get overbooked and  it happens i try not to do it too much i try not   to do two overbooked weeks back to back because  after one you need a little breather trust me so here are my cake fridges and right now i have  four cakes that i'm doing this week and they're   going to be picked up tomorrow and you can see i  have room like this one here is small so if i have   a few small ones i can take on more cakes or  if i have a few two tiered cakes i can take   on more if they are all three tiered like this  one they're going to take up a lot more room   so i i kind of know well i don't kind of know  i do know how many cakes and what size cakes my   refrigerators can hold and i take that into  consideration when i am taking the orders now when do i bake my cakes since i freeze  my cakes i am able to bake them in advance   ever since i've been freezing my cakes  i've found that they have been so   moist i'm sorry i have to say moist but they've  been really moist really delicious because when   you freeze them it traps in the moisture  and just makes them taste so much better   so i bake cakes for the following weekend on a  friday i'm looking at a calendar if i'm making   cakes for the weekend of the 11th to the 13th  i will bake and freeze the cakes on the 4th   so when people order cakes i always tell them  you cannot make any changes within two weeks   of the pickup or due date because i start on your  cakes i start on your decorations i purchase the   ingredients you know so um make sure i always make  sure that people know that because i'm gonna bake   it's happened before where i bake the cake and  then the next day they're like can i get chocolate   instead and you're like oh my god sometimes  it's not a big deal but sometimes if i'm super   busy and i'm like i'm sorry i i can't you know  so that's something to take into consideration so let's just use this example that i'm doing   uh cakes for the weekends of friday the 11th to  sunday the 13th so i will start on friday the 4th   saturday the 5th sunday the 6th monday the  7th i will work on decorations that need to   i will work on decorations and now this is for  a very busy week this is my max week i will work   on saturday sunday and monday on the decorations  now there are some decorations that i know that   i can do without having the cakes prepared cake  toppers if i know what size the cake the top tier   of a cake is i know what size i can make the cake  topper and this is just from experience if you are   just starting out you may need your cake finished  before you can measure the size of the decorations   that you need however i know most of my cakes are  about four and a half to five inches tall per tier   unless i do specialty tiers and i know how  big i can make the cakes based on those sizes so say i have six cakes due and i have to make  toppers for all of them and i know i have three   five inch cakes and two seven inch cakes and  a four inch cake as top tiers then i know what   size i can make the toppers so i will make them  and let them sit out and dry and if there are   any other toppers that i'm making or any other  decorations i can make which i know the sizes   i will do that as well i took pictures the  other day so you can see i have some toppers   and some decorations that i needed to dry hard  and i let them sit out and then also i had some   edible image decorations that i pre-printed and  cut out and i didn't want them to dry adhere   i adhered them to fondant but i didn't want them  to dry so i put them in an envelope and sealed the   bag and made sure that they wouldn't dry out so  they would be ready for me to put them on the cake so that does come with a little bit of  of experience being able to make your   decorations in advance because you need  to know the correct sizes to make them now on my busiest weeks when i have so many cakes  to do i will take the cakes out of the freezer   and thaw them and fill them on a tuesday i leave  them out to settle overnight and then on wednesday   i will ice them and get them in the refrigerator  and continue to work on decorations so i will   have wednesday thursday and friday to  finish decorating all of the cakes and   and stacking them and putting the borders on and  finishing other decorations that i couldn't do so they would be in the refrigerator for about  three or four days before they get picked up and   people people always have this fresh thing going  on with cakes and i've been doing it like this   for so long i have not had complaints now i  do use a doctored mix recipe for my decorated   cakes however i use a scratch recipe for my  pound cakes and i find that even they're fine   they're fine in the  refrigerator once they're sealed   with the icing it doesn't dry out and i just it  just works for me if they're in the refrigerator   for probably four days before they get picked up  on a very busy week i haven't had any complaints   um i have i've actually had people had to cancel  parties people had to postpone parties people had   to pick up a couple days late the cakes were  still fine this is just what has worked for me   i don't want to tell you to make your cakes five  six days in advance and just leave them sit in the   refrigerator in case that doesn't work for you or  the recipes that you use however i have just found   that if i freeze the cakes i keep them moist and  then thaw them fill them ice them and they're   in the refrigerator they are fine for a  couple days they have been able to last and i do it this way because i like to have my  cakes done the day before people pick them up   so i will finish the cakes i take pictures of  them i photoshop the cakes adding my watermark   and everything i will text the cakes to my  customers and make sure that they approve of the   the design sometimes i spell the name  wrong sometimes i do the wrong thing   and that gives me time to fix it and i  always have the cakes ready and wrapped up   before they pick them up the day before  they pick them up because sometimes   it's happened where people are giving me the wrong  date people have wanted to come earlier and this   just ensures that everything is ready to go um by  the end of the week and then that is by friday and   that day on friday i will also start to bake the  following week's cakes i hope this is making sense   now if i have a slower week i will push back  the days that i thaw and ice the cakes if i'm   only making two cakes then i can push back the  day and maybe take them out of the refrigerator   on wednesday i'm sorry take them out of the  freezer on wednesday to thaw and fill and   then ice on thursday and finish decorating on  friday so it all depends on how many cakes i'm   doing however if i have a crazy week i usually  take i usually thaw and fill them on a tuesday now i think i get this i think i get asked this  question so much because everybody has this   fresh thing um everyone's so scared  that the cake is going to get dry   if you don't eat it bake it and eat it within one  day and i have found that that is not the case   i have seen on many many different threads  online of cake decorators talking about   what's the longest time that you've made a cake  in advance and people have said seven to ten days   you know from my personal experience i try to  keep it around four or five days max however   like i said before there have been instances  where parties have been postponed a day or two   the weather has postponed a party you know i've  told people just keep the cake wrapped up really   well in the fridge maybe freeze it if it's  going to be more than you know a week away but   it it has stayed fresh i really haven't had issues  with it so that's my recommendation that is what i   do i just wanted to share with you what i do and  hopefully it will help you mess around with the   different timelines just see what works for you  if you want to do a little tester take a cake do a   do a tester cake freeze it thaw it and take  it out and put it in the refrigerator for a   few days and see if you think it still tastes good  when you thaw it and it comes to room temperature so i hope that video helped explain if you have  other questions about this leave them below i   do have a video showing how i take orders and how  i keep my how i keep my little order form book i   have a three ring binder separated by month and i  have weekly uh weekly sheets in here that i show i   write down all the orders that i have i highlight  when i get a deposit so i can easily look at it   so i will link that video so you can see that uh  if you would like to see how i organize my orders all right like i said if you have any other  questions or comments leave them below   and you can follow me on my  socials i'm on insta facebook   and i have my website everything  is linked in the description below and if you want to stick around you can  watch these two videos next and hit the   subscribe button and the bell if you haven't  already please like this video if you liked it   thank you so much for watching and remember it's  cake have fun i will see you on the next one bye

Channel: Karolyns Kakes

Views: 45,236

Keywords: baking cakes in advance, when to decorate cakes, cake decorating timeline, how to store cakes, cake schedule, how to schedule cakes, planning cakes, how to plan cakes, make ahead tips for cakes, cake, cake decorating, baking tips, how to, cake business, home cake business, cake baking timeline, bake, fill, ice, decorate, decorations, pickup, delivery, will it be fresh, ensure freshness, fresh cake, cakes in the refrigerator, how long will a cake stay fresh, karolyns kakes

Id: 5Z985L46mHc

Length: 12min 9sec (729 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 06 2022