Cakes
Cakes are a great item to freeze. It means you have some ready for when you want a sweet treat!
These instructions are suitable for freezing Christmas Cake and freezing Christmas Puddings also.
Preparation
Make cakes as you usually would.
Large cakes can be cut into slices before freezing so that individual slices can be taken out as you require them.
You may want to avoid jam fillings, icings but I have successfully frozen cakes with these items.
Packaging
Wrap large cakes which have not been decorated in foil and then overwrap them in a freezer bag.
Open flash freeze decorated and iced cakes until they are solid. Then wrap them in the foil and a freezer bag.
For small cakes, open flash freeze until solid and then pack in containers. I like to separate each cake with some greaseproof paper.
You can pack slices of cakes in a freezer bag, interleaving each slice with foil or greaseproof paper.
Place in a labelled and dated bag or container.
Thawing
You can thaw all cakes at room temperature, except those containing fresh cream which should be thawed overnight in a refrigerator.
Large cakes can be thawed in their wrappings for up to 4 hours.
Unwrap the decorated and iced cakes before thawing.
Unwrap the small cakes and the slices and thaw for approximately 1 hour.
Storage Time
Plain, Fruit, Sandwich Sponges made with fat - 4 months
Fat-Free Sponges - 10 months
Decorated and Iced cakes and Gingerbreads - 2 months