Everything about freezing and saving treats
In a month we will leave a very crazy year behind us. A very stressful year for many people, a very quiet one for those with empty calendars and home offices. Did you get a lot on your plate this year? Then let’s not add some more around Christmas. Or was 2020 a year of rest and reflection for you? Then why ruin that? So let’s make this December one without shopping and cooking stress. This blog is full of tips to freeze and store your baked goods, allowing you to start preparing for you Christmas dinner now, so that in a month you only need to dot the I’s and cross the t’s.
Freeze biscuits & cakes
From cupcakes to muffins and from ruby cake to red velvet, it is all suitable for freezing. You can freeze all our baking mixes with the word “cake” in it. And add these mixes too: macarons, sweet cookie & crust, sponge cake, brownies and muffins. Having trouble to remember these freezer-suitable mixes? Then keep this mnemonic in mind:
Mrs. Sanders Bakes Many Sweet Cakes.
The first letters of the first five words stand for the above mentioned extra mixes that you can freeze and “cakes” stands for all mixes with the word cake in them. No more doubts!
Just some things to keep in mind: by macarons in this case we mean the macaron shell, so without filling. The filling you just add after defrosting. And the Sweet Cookie and Crust? Even if you’ve added the almond paste to it, you can still freeze it.
Make sure to defrost your cakes within 3 months after freezing them. If you keep them in your freezer longer, it will impact the quality of your cake as it will start to dry out.
There are a number of things you should pay attention to when freezing.
- Make sure your cake has cooled completely after baking before freezing it.
- Cover your cakes or treats well, for example in cling film, a plastic bag or box.
- Remove the cake from the freezer on time: one day in advance should be enough.
- Let the cake defrost in the refrigerator, not on the kitchen counter. The transition of temperature is then gradual, which benefits the quality of your cake.
So whether you are going to make an impressive Christmas cake or want to have some cupcakes on hand for emergency situations: start baking all you like and fill up that freezer!
To avoid dry sponge and loaf cakes, eat your cakes within two days after baking or defrosting. Later than that, the quality of your cake starts to decrease, especially the smoothness will start to get lost. That is not the case within two days, many people even like a one day old cake better! So there’s really no reason to still be baking cakes on the morning of your Christmas dinner.
Dough!
Almost all of us freeze bread. But did you know you can do the same with your Christmas bread? Completely cooled and without powdered sugar, you can slide it straight into the freezer. Defrost at room temperature and briefly put it in the oven to warm it up and nobody realizes that you were already baking that Christmas bread in November.
Isn’t Christmas complete without the scent of Christmas bread in the house and do you really want to bake it at Christmas? Then only prepare the dough in advance and freeze this. Just make sure to freeze the dough after the first rise and have it sealed well, for example in a plastic bag. To defrost the dough, remove it from the plastic bag and place it in a bowl with a wet towel over it. Place the bowl with the towel in the fridge and your dough will defrost perfectly without it drying out.
Decorating Christmas wreaths? This works with cookie dough too! Freeze your cookie dough as a ball if you want to cut out figures later, or as a roll if you are going to make only round cookies. All you then have to do after defrosting is to cut the dough into slices and place it on the baking tray! This works with our regular cookie dough, but also with Gingerbread Cookies or Double Choco Chip Cookies.
Dough can also be saved in the freezer for a maximum of 3 months, within this period your are sure of a good quality dough after defrosting.
Bavarois is your buddy
You probably already knew that you can freeze bavarois, as there obviously is no other option when you fill silicone moulds with bavarois. But we just couldn’t leave it out of this blog, cause bavarois pastries do make up for an easy and relexed Christmas dessert and hey, isn’t that exactly what we’re after? Put a mold with six bavarois pastries in the freezer now and you only have to provide them with a beautiful mirror glaze, chocolate glaze or velvet layer later! Let it defrost again in the refrigerator and you will be the family’s number one pastry-cook this Christmas.
Freeze buttercream
Did you know you can even freeze your buttercream? As long as your cream has not come into contact with other ingredients and you pack it properly, you can store the buttercream in the freezer for up to 3 months. Even rosettes, piped flowers and leafs made of buttercream or Swiss Meringue Buttercream can be frozen. Once you get them out of the freezer you can place them on your cake or cupcakes directly, saving you a lot of last-minute work!
Your friends and family may make fun of you when they find you preparing your buttercream in September, but let’s see who’s still laughing once it’s December.
There are some things to keep an eye on when you are freezing and defrosting buttercream. We wrote a blog about this before, which you can find by clicking on the button below.
Freeze a filled and covered sponge cake
You can freeze a sponge cake and you can freeze buttercream. Does that also mean you can freeze a filled and covered sponge cake? Hell yes! Even with fondant or marzipan on top, this is fine. Just add your drips and fondant decorations afterwards and there you have your impressive stress-free Christmas cake. Again make sure you defrost the cake in the fridge, and when it’s a cake with fondant, be sure to have a well-closed box around it, so that the moist from your fridge doesn’t affect your fondant too much. That also means: no peaking in between to see if your cake has defrosted already! Cause then the moist may already affect your cake, possibly resulting is melting fondant or marzipan. Just take 24 hours to defrost your cake in a box in the fridge. Than your cake has enough time to carefully defrost.
No idea what to make this Christmas? Then take a look at our Christmas recipes! With that and with the above tips, you will be well prepared. Hello relaxed Christmas!
