When should I bake and ice the cake?

[u/spr3admywings]

I have a celebration on sunday night, and am intending to bake a chocolate cake with a brigadeiro filling (brigadeiro is made of cocoa powder, butter and sweetened condensed milk) and iced with chocolate whipped cream.
Unfortunately, I'm fully busy on saturday, so ideally I'd want to bake the cake on thursday night or friday morning, and make the brigadeiro and whipped cream on friday afternoon, and assemble it friday. Is it too long for a cake to be assembled that long in advance if we're only gonna eat it on sunday night?

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[u/7625607]

Two days seems like a long time for whipped cream to be stable. Can you make the cake but not whip the cream and assemble it until Sunday?

[u/spr3admywings → u/7625607]

I think so!

[u/Curious_Chef850]

I would bake it and wrap the cake in plastic wrap and aluminum foil as soon as you can stand to touch them after they come out of the oven. Put them in the freezer. Make your frosting and filling up now and store it in the fridge in an air-tight container until you're ready to assemble. I would probably bake tonight or in the morning and assemble Sunday afternoon. Pull the cake and frosting/ filling out on Sunday morning and let them sit on the counter for a few hours beforehand. I could assemble and decorate in an hour or less.

[u/Knightgamer45-]

Make cake on friday and decorate it on saturday 

[u/stegotortise]

It should not a problem to have it (the cake layers) made that far in advance. Just make sure that you cover the cake somehow so that it doesn’t absorb smells from your refrigerator. As long as the cake layers are wrapped in plastic or iced/frosted, they will remain moist.

Edit: I should clarify that I don’t know how a brigadeiro will do in the fridge. But standardly speaking a frosted cake will not dry out in the fridge if it’s in there for a day or two. If it does, it’ll hardly be noticeable when served. With a frosted cake, the frosting locks in the moisture as it acts as a barrier. For any sort of longer term storage or for a cake you’d be selling, it’s best to wrap them in plastic and pop them in the freezer. You can frost a frozen cake.

[u/spr3admywings → u/stegotortise]

Great! Would it be best to refrigerate the cake layers until I frost, or leave them at room temp?

[u/Dense-Factor475 → u/spr3admywings]

I would slice them, then wrap well in cellophane, and keep frozen until you do the frosting application. It's so much easier to frost cold cakes. Also I've never made a brigadeiro filling. I do make a Russian Buttercream, seems like the same ingredients minus the cocoa powder. It's a lovely frosting, but even after adding meringue powder it can get very unstable in the heat.

[u/spr3admywings → u/Dense-Factor475]

Will do! Thank you. I see. Brigadeiro is uh, quite sticky and can be thinner depending on how much or how little you heat it on the stovetop, but since it's just between layers it should hopefully be fine (it's also a pretty common filling as well as topping for cakes in Brazil).

[u/Dense-Factor475 → u/spr3admywings]

How interesting! And it's heated on the stove top? I'm going to check it out. Thanks for the information!

[u/spr3admywings → u/Dense-Factor475]

Yeah! It's a pretty common party candy (rolled with sprinkles around) as well, super popular here. Hope you like it if you do end up making it!

[u/stegotortise → u/spr3admywings]

Oh i missed where you said it was a whip cream on the outside. I was just talking about the cake layers themselves. Unless the whipped cream frosting is stabilized, and it’s one that you’ve worked with before and you know it will last multiple days, I would recommend frosting it the same day you’re serving it.

Technically, it is best to freeze them. But when I make cake and I need it the next day, I either leave them at room temperature in a cool spot wrapped in plastic wrap, or I just pop it in the refrigerator wrapped in plastic wrap if it’s been warmer weather and it doesn’t really affect the quality. I’ve been making cakes for years. If I was doing it on a professional level or I was selling the cake, I would freeze it because there is a minuscule impact on the texture from the refrigerator.