Defrosting a frozen cake for decorating

[Cupcakes1234]

Hi all,

I'm in no way a professional or really a hobby Baker, but I do enjoy baking and have made cupcakes with piped icing and a larger round cake with piped roses for my mums birthday. The lady who has previously made cakes for my sons occasions has let us down so I decided to make it myself.

I baked the actual cakes on Monday and Tuesday, cut them in half, wrapped them in 2 layers of cling film and a layer of foil and have put them in the freezer. I plan to get them decorated (fondant icing) Saturday. They are just vanilla Madeira cakes.

How is best to defrost them? Do I let them defrost fully before adding any sort of crumb coat and icing? Do I unwrap them? Put them in the fridge overnight? Leave them on the counter? Let them fully defrost? I am completely clueless as I have never frozen a cake before. I am getting a lot of mixed answers online through google search.

Any tips or advice would be welcome, I am now worried as I was hoping to save time by baking them in advance.

I don't actually know, and someone may be along later who does know, but my guess would be to let them defrost at room temperature but still wrapped up. If you unwrap them they will dry out, and if you leave them wrapped in the fridge......why? Madeira cake has a good shelf life, so you are slowing down the defrost and not doing anything beneficial to preserve the cake.

I ice them still frozen, it's much easier, especially if you're using buttercream.

I often freeze cake in order to ice when doing a big cake - it makes them firmer to work with etc. So get out, ice and add fondant and let defrost naturally until needed

Thank you everyone for your replies. I have just taken my cakes out the freezer and am going to leave them out wrapped up for the night. I'm still very much a novice and would rather have them defrosted before I ice and decorate, just for peace of mind. I will update hopefully if all goes to plan.

Bit late now I guess but icing frozen is an absolute standard for cake decorating.

They need to still be frozen/ not fully defrosted to take advantage of the crumbs not sticking to the frosting if you try to spread buttercream. If they do start to pull up crumbs with a room temp cake either pipe dots or aim to do a thin base layer of buttercream and then with a clean spatula do a second, thicker layer.

I had read so many conflicting opinions on defrosting and icing. I have gotten up this morning and they are still a little cold in the middle, I will be making a start on them soon though. Thank you for the advice, I know for next time now

Good luck ! I ice cakes when frozen, always, because they are so much easier to work with. Have fun.