Do Cakes Have To Be Stored Airtight

Simone spent a year working at a famous cupcake store where she learned from the experts.

The best way to store a cake to keep it fresh.

Annie Spratt via Unsplash; Canva

Block storage is non the lucent process you thought it was, believe me. Every bit a lifelong cake addict and fangirl, I thought I knew everything there was to know about cake preparation and storage. Only I was incorrect.

When I spent well-nigh a year working at a famous Washington, D.C. cupcake store and learning from the experts, I acquired a corking bargain of noesis about the less-than-obvious process of successful block storage.

Beneath, I shall share my insider knowledge on how to store cakes. I'll dispel the myths, share my secrets, and help yous make up one's mind on how to best store a cake based on your estimated time of eating.

Why Y'all Shouldn't Refrigerate Your Block

I always used to refrigerate cake, probably because nosotros (at least in the U.Southward.) have been conditioned to believe that all things are kept "fresh" in the refrigerator. For many years, I believed that this was a good practice, not simply because one generally puts things in the refrigerator but too because I oftentimes see cakes displayed in refrigerators and refrigerated cases in many cafes and restaurants.

My entire belief system was turned upside downwards when I had my kickoff day of work at a famous DC cupcake store. When I asked them how to store some of the cupcakes I was taking habitation at the cease of the nighttime and suggested refrigeration in an airtight container, they looked at me like I had but proposed nosotros cook and swallow a newborn baby.

This is because my coworkers and bosses took cake and cupcakes very seriously. And because refrigeration is a dreadful thing to inflict on a perfectly good block.

Why? Refrigeration dries sponge cakes out. It'south that simple.

Even if you refrigerate a cake in a perfectly sealed container and only for a short amount of time, it volition dry out. The just time it is appropriate to refrigerate a cake is if it has decorative buttercream icing that is literally melting (and in this case, advent trumps taste) or if it is not a sponge cake and rather a cheesecake or some sort of mousse that does require refrigeration.

Try to think of sponge cake like bread. After all, the ii things are quite similar. Do you put your bread in the fridge? No. So don't put your cake in the refrigerator either!

Then How Should I Store Cake?

Since refrigeration is out of the question, you lot might be wondering what your options are. Let me first introduce the two best brusque-term options:

ane. Bake information technology and eat it!

Almost sponge cakes are at their prime when freshly broiled, so if possible, eat cakes the day they are made. If you are going to a baker to get cake, check with them to see what their advice is regarding timing. Some bakeries—such equally the cupcake store at which I worked—take a very strict policy of baking cakes fresh every day. This is very labor-intensive but it too means that you'll become the freshest, all-time cake possible.

If the bakery from which yous procure cakes bakes them ahead of time and gives them to you a day later (or, god forbid, two days later), walk away.

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How Do I Store Cakes for Longer Periods?

A sponge cake tin be stored in a sealed, airtight container at room temperature for near three days. I have friends who have nommed on a cake for upwards to 5 days.

Freeze for longterm storage.

If you know that you want to serve a cake more than than three days afterwards its baking, seal it in an closed container and freeze information technology. When yous're ready to eat information technology, let thaw it slowly at room temperature.

Freezing helps seal the moisture in, whereas refrigerating dries things out. The area of any block that is about negatively impacted by freezing is the icing, as icing does not thaw out looking as perky as it did when it was first applied. That said, freezing results in a far more tasty block than one that has gone stale and dry—either at room temperature or in a refrigerator.

Sealed containers are best. — Sealed containers are all-time.

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FAQ

Will block mold if left out?

If you lot're worried about cakes getting moldy, don't. I've kept cupcakes effectually to run into what happens to them, and they don't grow mould. They just dry out out and harden. They actually become rather cute fossils that make for first-class projectile weapons. Nobody would expect a cupcake to be as difficult equally a rock, which makes your attack all the more surprising and wonderfully painful.

How to store cake with buttercream frosting?

A cake iced with buttercream frosting tin can be stored out, at room temperature, for about 2 days. After that, information technology does crave refrigeration. If you must refrigerate, place the block in an closed container.

What about cheesecake or mousse cake?

The high content of dairy in these types of desserts does require refrigeration. Put them in the fridge presently after yous're done eating, especially in warm weather.

How to store a cake overnight?

Most cakes will practise fine left in the bakery box on the kitchen counter. You can wrap the outside of the box with plastic wrap for extra moisture retentivity. Yous tin also use an airtight container.