Hello.  I am planning on making a special occasion cake using a sponge cake that has a rum pastry filling.  It will take me a couple of days to get the cake completely done and decorated.  Day one says to bake, brush with rum syrup, fill with pastry cream and refrigerate over night to get it to all firm up and flavors to meld. It is topped with stabilized whipped cream so I don’t want to do that part til day it will be served.  At best, I am thinking may take 3 days from start to eating.  Will be in fridge most of the time.  I want the leftovers to still be good for a few days though so….. how long can a cake with pastry cream last before fear of spoiling? 

I am icing it in mousseline and then putting a stenciled chocolate collar on it.  then on day of serving will pipe the cream and do some other decorating…  I don’t want to go through all this and have the cake spoil… 

Second question…. can I put the chocolate collar on a cold from fridge mousseline covered cake?  Collar will obviously be set but pliable.  Will it cause a problem with the candy/chocolate setting up too fast?

Important cake to me…son’s first wedding anniversary cake.  Thanks for your patience and help.  Hugs…Pat

What about doing the baking and making the pastry cream on day one, then assembling it on day two and serving on day 3?  The longest I’ve held pastry cream is 5 days in the cooler.

Well, the directions did say to brush the sponge layers with the syrup and fill the cake and then refrigerate it overnight so it can firm up enough to work with.  I am afraid if I don’t give it that time the pastry cream would be too soft and slippery to work with the cake.  My plan was to bake and fill and fridge.  Then I could do the mousseline icing…let it set and make the collar and put it on.  That would leave me with doing the final decorating…stabilized whipped cream and some piping the day we eat it on the third day.  Just wonder how long the leftovers would be good for.  Can it last a week total?  If you say 5 days total….then maybe it would be ok for at least two days after.  I would try not to leave it out to work on it for very long at a time…so could get right back to fridge.  Turn the a/c way up…LOL

I think it would be ok…...

It sounds like maybe there is rum in the pastry cream- if not, you might want to consider adding some to help with preservation.