Do you want to have your cake and eat it later?
Sometimes you can’t quite manage to eat the rest of your cake, or perhaps you’re saving it for a special reason like the top tier of your wedding cake. Whatever the reason here is a quick guide to help you store that leftover cake.
Iced cakes
You can leave your cake under a cake dome or an overturned bowl for 4-5 days as long as it is completely covered in butter cream or fondant icing.
The icing keeps the cake moist and fresh, but covering with a bowl or dome will keep out dust and if there is children or pets around, fingers and paws out of cakes!
If you have a cake that has been sliced, try to cover the exposed cake with icing to seal it, otherwise press plastic wrap directly onto the sliced part of the cake to seal and make sure that it sticks to it.
If you need to store a cake for more than 5 days, or if it’s iced with cream cheese or whipped cream, it will need to go in the refrigerator.
- place the cake in the fridge for 15 minutes to harden the icing
- wrap as tightly as possible with plastic wrap to keep those weird fridge smells from getting to your cake.
- Cakes kept in the fridge will keep for 7-10 days.
Also if it is a hot day, it’s probably best to keep your cake in the fridge to stop the icing from melting and to keep bacteria from growing, causing the cake to form mould quickly.
To keep your cake for longer than 10 days? The traditional top tier (or piece of) of wedding cake to be eaten a year later for example.
- put the cake into the fridge to firm up for 30 minutes
- cover completely with plastic wrap to seal
- cover with a layer of aluminium foil
- place the whole lot into an air tight container, or freezer bag if you don’t have one
Non-Iced cakes
Non-iced cakes will go stale a lot quicker than iced cakes since there is no icing to keep the moisture in.
A non-iced cake can be kept a room temperature for about 5 days if you completely cover tightly with plastic wrap making sure all sides are covered.
Again if the house is hot it can be stored in the fridge to keep bacteria from rapidly growing.
What else can you do with the leftover cake?
How about a cake milkshake? Or crumble and mix with icing to make cake pops? Check out Craftsy’s Saving Cake: 15 Incredible Uses for Leftover Cake for some awesome ideas on what you could do with those leftovers.
Images courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Cakealicious Cakes 
What useful tips on cake storage! I learnt something new! It’s great to know the difference between iced and non-iced cakes, and I’ve always wondered how people store their wedding cakes (properly) for a year! And the cake pops would be a hit with the kids, definitely going to try that next time! Beks
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Thanks for your comment Beks!
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I wish I read this when I had got married! I had googled all these different ways to protect my wedding cake but I still managed to freeze it wrong. But now I will be armed with the right knowledge for someone else’s cake. I liked that you have added other ways of using leftover cake. I would have never thought you could make french toast out of cake. Brilliant ideas!
Emma
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Thanks Emma! I do hate the thought of wasting cake so I’m glad the ideas will come in handy!
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Cake doesn’t usually last long in my house but it’s great to have some tips for those rare times that we practice self-restraint. I had no idea that you should put the cake in the fridge to harden the icing. That’s where I’ve been going wrong. I love the ideas for using leftover cake (especially when I’ve done a terrible job of storing it). Cake milkshake? That sounds amazing and dangerous. I’m definitely going to have to try that. Thank you for your really informative blog.
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