Transporting buttercream wedding cake.

[Luckydog7]

Hi has anyone made and moved a large 3 tiered buttercream cake?

I'm making my sisters wedding cake. 3 tall tiers iced in buttercream filled with gnash. The wedding is at 1pm and is two hours drive from me. I have limited fridge space so my plan is to make and freeze all the cakes in advance. Then the day before allow cakes to defrost, mix up a shit tonne of iceing and relay the cakes one at a time in the fridge setting the crumb coat then finished coat.

The top tier will have fresh fruit in it so that one will stay in the fridge overnight but the others just boxed/covered on the counter overnight. Then all three in car early morning to venue where I will stack them and decorate with chocolate finish (probably only an hour) leaving me 2 hours or so to rush about and do hair, get dressed etc.

Questions are. Should/can i leave the cakes out to the air so they 'crust'? Or should I aim to put them in boxes/air tight containers overnight to avoid this?

If they crust up, can i clingfilm them or will this ruin the finish?

Quite a lot of the cake will be covered with the decoration so minor dints during construction i can cover.

Can anyone advise?

[Luckydog7]

ah I should clarify the tiers will be transported separately and stacked at the venue. Support dowls etc already purchased.

[onepieceoflollipop]

I can’t answer all of these questions but I have a suggestion.

Depending on the venue could you transport them the night before (and maybe even decorate them there?) Would save rushing and panic in the morning.
ours was a local hotel and we were able to assemble things (but didn’t ask about cake) the evening before.

If the weather is hot then the buttercream is at risk of melting en route.I wouldn’t use cling film as it is likely to settle onto the icing and smudge it.
personally I would get boxes and store them in the boxes overnight.
also think of how you will wedge them in the car in case of sudden stops!
I safely drove 100 mile with 2 tiers in the back of a fiesta but they were a bit more robust - fruit with royal icing, I was relieved when I arrived!

[Garman]

It's spelled ganache 🙂

You can't use cling film but don't need to anyway. Them crusting is fine, it doesn't make a difference, makes them easier to handle/move. I leave them overnight in cardboard cake boxes in a cool dark room. Plastic boxes sealed with lids will likely make the cakes sweat especially if they've been frozen and refrigerated.

But how are you managing the fresh fruit tier? Fresh fruit in a cake needs to be refrigerated until near serving, what type of fresh fruit?

[Luckydog7]

It will be raspberries baked into the cake. That one I will refrigerate overnight. I plan to put down the back seats of my car and use aircon. Its only in a couple of weeks and in the North so unlikely to be very hot.

I have spoken to the venue who are happy for me to do the finishing touches there.

Can't go the day before. Its a 4 hour round trip and I have two small children and my oh is recovering from long covid so minimising time away. I can prep everything the night before so just need to tuck everything in the car first thing.

Good to know I don't have to store in airtight containers that makes things simpler.

Re gnash. Too much beano as a child (gnasher)

[Garman]

Ah that's not fresh fruit so if it's baked in. In the boot on grippy mats is the best place to put cakes when you're driving if you have the space, otherwise if you brake they can fly forward into the footwell.

[onepieceoflollipop]

hope all goes well sounds delicious
I mis read and thought you were doing the round trip in the morning (I did think it was odd) but obviously I got the wrong end of the stick and therefore my night before suggestions wouldn’t work - sorry!