Hi All—

Thanks for all the advise to date!  I made a test cake, torted, syruped and filled it and cut it in half.  Half I glazed and ate, the other half I put it in the freezer.  The first half was perfect.  A few days later, I thawed and glazed the second half.  It wasn’t nearly as good as the half that was never frozen.  The texture became overly soft and the distinctness of the layers was gone.  The cake has 8 oz of almond paste and 11 oz of butter in it plus sugar, eggs and a little flour and I’m baking it in an 8” square pan. I used melted and strained raspberry jam as the filling. 

Do you think that the problem was that the cake was torted, syruped and filled before freezing or do you think it is more likely that this cake is not a good candidate for the freezer?  I’d love y’all’s thoughts before I set about making another cake because each one takes a while.

Thanks in advance!

Monique.

I’m not nearly as experienced as some who come on this forum but I would think that it was the filling , torting and syruping that was to blame for the deteriation in the quality of your cake. I am reasonably sure that the cake on its own would have been in good condition if it was stored as it should have been in the freezer, by that I mean, wrapped well and stored for the correct time.  I have frozen lots of different types of cakes over the years and they have always been as ggod as fresh when defrosted.

cakes that don’t rely much on flour for cake texture aren’t very freezeable.

also be sure to thaw the cake first in the refrigerator and w/o removing the freezer wrap, otherwise you get a condensation rush and turn your cake and filling into mush.

also a plain jam filling absorbs quickly into the cake, thus frezing or not eating it the same day will make the jam dissapear.

there are many cakes and fillings you can freeze, completed or not, as noted on all cakes from cake bible.

hector- thanks for the reminder about defrosting cakes.  I was looking on your website and am intriqued by the carmel work.  Do you have tips for that anywhere?
Thanks so much!

I just wanted to clarify, Rose’s cocoa souffle roll is flourless but freezes perfectly.  It uses cocoa powder and ground almonds to substitute for flour, so it behaves more like a flour-containing cake.  Custard-style flourless cakes (like cheesecake) don’t freeze well, but I don’t know how much flour yours has, or which camp it falls into. 

It sounds like it could be the jam watering out, or absorbing into the cake, as Hector and Jeanette point out.  If you have it in you to do another test cake, try freezing it as is, then torting/syruping/filling after thawing.

Good Luck!

Monique, if your almond cake recipe doesn’t work out, you could try Rose’s almond biscuit roulade from The Cake Bible, which does freeze perfectly.  It is baked in a thin layer in a sheet pan, and you can stack the layers instead of rolling them.  I once made a rectagular cake with the almond roulade, layered with caramel silk meringue buttercream.  It was wonderful.

If you want a raspberry filling that freezes so it can be assembled ahead, consider Rose’s raspberry mousseline buttercream, also from The Cake Bible.

Good Luck

i’ve learned how to make caramel cages and simple sculptures from Cake Bible.  my most recent recommendation (and this includes heating sugar for italian meringue and mousseline buttercream) is to use an induction stove with non-heat retentive pot, like magnetic stainless steel.  induction doesn’t produce residual or side heat, so there is very little chances to overheat your sugar.

Wow—thank you very much for all the great tips!  I will try another test cake and, if that fails, try the Almond Biscuit Roulade.  I was pretty sloppy about the defrost.  I had it on the counter for a while, then put it in the fridge, then it was back on the counter again while I made the glaze and contemplated the while thing.