To serve this cake?

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I got a bit keen, well had some spare time and made two sponge birthday cakes. I've sandwiched them together with buttercream and apricot jam and covered entirely with buttercream icing, then tin foil and a tea towel to protect from the air. I need to decorate them, which I have time to do on Friday.

However the party is on sun. I made the cake yesterday afternoon. Is it too long?! Should I keep it in the fridge? Or remake? It's for 7 year olds.

Stale just means not as pleasant to eat, not actively harmful. Eggs thoroughly cooked in cake and other sweet things are not a food poisoning risk. I always check my eggs on purchase to make sure the shells aren't cracked. I discard any that are. We have a rapid turnover of eggs in this house but I would have no qualms about using eggs for baking if they were right up against the best before date. Probably wouldn't make runny scrambled eggs with them, but that's a bit different to baking.

I have a Christmas pudding left over from last year, which would have been made over a year ago now (by me, so I know what was in it). I wouldn't think twice about eating it now (and indeed we will be eating it this Christmas!). No wonder there's so much food waste in this country when people don't know enough about food to judge risk sensibly.

As for the buttercream risk, dear me. Butter is perfectly safe to keep at room temperature and many of us do, and live to tell the tale. Margarine, not so much, I'll grant you, but commercially produced cakes with buttercream icing are not kept in the fridge. They're stored on the shelves, so in a cool place, but ambient temperatures.

I wouldn’t eat it personally. It contains dairy so it could turn bad in that time.

The cake is perfectly safe to eat, but texture wise not quite at its best. As long as you haven't invited Paul Hollywood, it will be fine to serve.

So the cakes almost been demolished now!! Is it too early to rebake the sponges tonight for icing tomorrow?! Served on Sunday

Wow there’s a lot of cake ignorance on this thread!

Sponge cake can be made and then eaten a couple of weeks later provided it’s kept airtight, either by wrapping a container or covered in sugarpaste. So it would have been fine until Sunday. Cake generally dries out if stored in a fridge so unless it contains FRESH dairy like cream or milk then don’t put it in. The eggs/dairy in the sponge itself is utterly irrelevant. Buttercream if made with just sugar, butter and water (no milk or cream) will also be absolutely fine at room temperature for weeks. If you know it’s going to be kept for a couple of days then trickle some water over the layers when you sandwich them and before you cover in icing and it’ll make a huge difference.

butter in the icing left out which could turn if temp is too warm

Nope, once butter is combined with the icing sugar to make buttercream then the sugar will act as a preservative.

On a side note (just an opinion) but Apricot Jam in a children’s cake is an unusual choice. Why? Do today's children not like apricot? Not like jam?

I'd be pretty annoyed if someone gave my child very old cake to be honest. Old cake is what you make trifle from. It's not going to make your child sick.

No wonder there's so much food waste in this country when people don't know enough about food to judge risk sensibly. One of the most sensible comments so far.

The cake would have been absolutely fine to eat. I agree that freezing would have been better but with buttercream on and well wrapped it would have been ok to eat and probably have tasted good.

We have done this. It's ok. Actually the cake improves if it's stored correctly.

The key is to eliminate air from getting to the sponge. This is achieved by making sure the butter icing completely covers the outside. No gaps at all. Then cover the cake. I use tin foil moulded around it then cling film over this.

It will keep for 4 days but deteriorates quickly once the air gets to it.

I would bake tomorrow for Sunday, OP.