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To Freeze or Not to Freeze

post #1 of 6
10/5/08 at 12:04am
Thread Starter 
Is there anyone out there who can explain to me what happens, on a molecular level, when you freeze a cake?? If done properly, I have never had an issue in doing so. However, there is so much hype about not freezing your cakes that I'm wondering what the big deal is. I triple wrap in saran wrap, then wrap in foil, and never store for more than a few weeks. Oh, and no re-freezing. Sometimes I swear the cake has a moister texture after it's been frozen!! So based on all that, can someone explain in more detail why I shouldn't freeze a cake. Is it just an integrity thing? Like "Our cakes are baked from scratch and never frozen."?
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post #2 of 6
10/5/08 at 6:12am
To a certain extent it is the "integrity" thing. Harold McGee has written about freezing of bakery goods. Of course his interest is in commercial applications but the science is the science so it will apply here. The big commercial operations freeze their products in blast freezers with temperatures that are way below the typical home or even restaurant freezer. The extreme cold of the blast freezer produces much smaller, finer ice crystals that do less structural damage to the product. As I recall he showed electron microscope pictures of this. The end result is that the product is very close to what it was when it went into the freezer.

I will speculate that the reason you feel your frozen cakes are moister is that the larger ice crystals are releasing "free water" into the product and it is being consumed before the product has fully reabsorbed that moisture.
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post #3 of 6
10/5/08 at 7:40am
Thread Starter 
Interesting.........so in your opinion, unless you're a large operation, would you advise against freezing? What about refrigeration? Would it be best to store a cake at room temperature, well wrapped of course, until ready to ice?
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post #4 of 6
10/5/08 at 8:41am

For

Freeze cake to avoid overly crumby crumb.
I also wash before I freeze and the cakes retain their moistrue more readily.

When spliting cakes for layered cakes, always use cold = chilled cake or even frozen partial thaw. Again, to avoid the crumbing and also aids in clean cuts.

Freezing tightens the crumb and the melting ice crystals keep moisture in the cake layers.

The colder the cake, the more it keeps together and gives clean cuts.

I will look into McGee, but this is what I have found in industry.
bake first, ask questions later.
Oooh food, my favorite!


Professor Pastry Artswww.collin.edu
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post #5 of 6
11/9/08 at 5:35am
We freeze every cake we ice.

No complaints.

No problems.

Taste great!

I would say more then a 1000 cakes a year with out looking at the numbers.

We just slap them in one of our normal walk in freezers, and we have a blast chiller but it's not like the freezer blast chillers I guess, because it's only used to cool things off really quick.

My advice freeze away, for icing it's the only way.... Crumb coat, butter cream and fondont. We feeze for all types.


Robert
:)
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post #6 of 6
11/9/08 at 1:42pm
as a home baker i often freeze cakes and they come out fine. Certain frostings don;t hold up, but some do. I successfully freeze ganache frosting, no problem.
"Siduri said, 'Gilgamesh, where are you roaming? You will never find the eternal life that you seek...Savour your food, make each of your days a delight, ... let music and dancing fill your house, love the child who holds you by the hand and give your wife pleasure in your embrace.'"
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