Hello everyone;
I need a cake to be completely ready Saturday night. The cake part [white velvet] is ready and frozen. Now I want to make Swiss/Italian meringue buttercream to frost the cake.
I’m going away Thursday afternoon and coming back Saturday night.  Can I frost the cake and stash it in the fridge? I don’t have a lot of time at home before I need to bring the cake..
Is it better to make the frosting, put in the fridge, and just whip it into its frosting-shape right when I get home?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Hi, McB!

Yes!  You can completely frost the cake and keep it in your fridge.  It will be perfect on Saturday night.  In fact, it will probably be moister than if you served it immediately!  The frosting will “seal in” the freshness provided there are no gaps between the frosting and the platform the cake is on (and no other exposed cake, of course).  If you don’t have a cake carrier to cover the composed cake completely, once the cake is firm from the fridge, seal it to your platform/carrier with plastic wrap to help keep out odors (although I’ve never had this problem). 

Remove the plastic wrap while the cake is still cold so you don’t mar the frosting. 

Give it a good 6 hours to come to room temp.  if you can’t do that, you can at least be content that, once it’s cut, it comes to room temp more quickly.  You can always cut cold slices and then they only take about 20 minutes to be completely soft.

I would let the frozen layers thaw in the fridge overnight—or at least thaw some, somehow (even wrapped, on the counter, for an hour or so)—before frosting so that it doesn’t expand in its frosted state and cause splits.

Good luck!!!!

—ak

Cool! I can’t believe it’s even better to frost it ahead!
Also, My cake is a two-tiered cake- one 6 inch and another 4 inch. Do you know how can I approximate the amount of frosting needed? Would half a 9-inch-two-layer-normal-cake suffice?

Hi, McB!

It looks like a 6” tier + a 4” tier = 63% of a 9” tier, so I’d do a 3/4 of a batch that would cover two 9” layers to be safe.  You can freeze any extra frosting.  You can also use it to make a cake sandwich with any trimmings!!!!!

—ak

Rose’s chart in the Cake Bible says that it takes 2 cups to frost a 6” cake.  A 4” cake probably takes a little less, maybe 1.5 cups or so, so that would be 3.5 cups.  That said, the last time I frosted a tiered cake with the quanitites in that chart there wasn’t a speck left over- none for correcting sloping sides or piping decorations, so you may just want to make 4 cups of frosting and be content with a little left over.

Thanks Anne and Julie!
I think I’ll make a full 9 inch batchand freeze the rest.

Hey, McB!

I have to correct myself on that 63% figure—I was using the usual calculations for batter, but I realized it didn’t take into consideration the potential extra circumference of two cakes.

So, for the surfacts, 63% still goes.
However, the circumferences of a 6” + a 4” cake is 30”, as opposed to 28” for a 9” cake.

So, a full 9” batch should still work, but it will be close.  It wouldn’t hurt to make 1.25x batch and freeze the rest. 

Very sorry!  It hit me like a brick last night!

—ak

Ha! Thanks Anne!
Actually i’ve made a full batch filled and frosted the entire cake ahead of time and left it in the fridge. I even had some frosting to spare!
So now I just want to update that it was just gorgeous; completely moist and fridge-odor-free, even though I haven’t covered it with a cake dome or something [but only because I forgot].

Thank you guys!

This is why i love this forum so much! I was struggling with the same issue my self. Now that i have the answer i can just leave my beautiful frosted cake in the fridge - and not think about it until its party time!

Yay, McB!!!

So glad everything went so well!

You can freeze that leftover frosting forever, BTW. 

—ak