Freezing Orange cake filling:

[Darienne]

For the DH's 70th and our 50th I am making his favorite cake but I have serious storage and time problems.

I have to make it as far ahead of time as I can. I can freeze the chocolate cake layers, but what about the filling? And what about the ganache topping which a friend has offered to decorate with words of wisdom or some such thing.

We'll have a large gang of dogs and their humans here for the weekend and I can't make the cake at the last minute, or the filling or anything. And I'll not have enough room to store it anywhere in a fridge and there is no coolth anywhere to be found...unless we have some weird cold wave. A friend has offered to keep it in her fridge and bring it at the luncheon.

Can I freeze the filling?

How far ahead of serving can I make it and keep it?

How far ahead of serving can I fill the cake?

How far ahead of serving can I make the ganache?

Assemble the entire cake?

Etc.

OK. Cake is three jelly-roll thicknesses of chocolate cake.

The filling is: cream cheese, whipping cream; fresh whole orange, orange zest, sugar, orange juice and orange liqueur. The ganache is bittersweet chocolate and whipping cream.

All help is appreciated.

skip the doodads and enlarge the cake times three.

Edited August 12, 2010 by Darienne (log)

[ElsieD]

Wish I could help. What time is lunch?

[KarenDW]

If it was me...

I would make and assemble the entire cake, including the ganache frosting.

Freeze [unwrapped] until firm, then wrap in a double layer of plastic film, and pack into a box for longer freezer storage.

Thaw in the refrige, OR in a cooler chest (!) for a few hours before serving. It's easiest to cut when cold, anyways, and by the time the portions are on plates and in people's hands, the thawing will be complete.

IMPORTANT: leave the plastic ON during the defrost, to keep condensation off of the lovely ganache!

If you are using commercial cream cheese, there's probably a bit of lecithin or some other stabilizer, which should keep the filing from separating. I would probably add some Dr. Oeteker's Whip-it stabilizer to the cream, too, as extra insurance, and use less-than-usual orange juice (or frozen juice concentrate, not diluted)

Can the "words of wisdom" be piped onto a separate disk/sheet of chocolate (or small banner of parchment paper), and attached at serving time?

[KarenDW]

OK. Cake is three jelly-roll thicknesses of chocolate cake.

The filling is: cream cheese, whipping cream; fresh whole orange, orange zest, sugar, orange juice and orange liqueur. The ganache is bittersweet chocolate and whipping cream.

Sounds delish, btw.

[Darienne]

Can the "words of wisdom" be piped onto a separate disk/sheet of chocolate (or small banner of parchment paper), and attached at serving time?

All good ideas and this one is a beauty. I'll ask. That would make it possible to store it near home instead of at the home of the decorator.

If you would like the recipe, just pm or email me. It is one delicious cake. The filling is to die for with a whole orange in it. None of this 2 TBSP of orange juice stuff. And I'll use Gran Marnier in it. But then we'll be drinking Margaritas anyway with our Mexican (read Tex/Cal/Mex) luncheon.

Anyone who wants to come is invited. You need only to be a dog person, even one currently without a dog.

[CanadianBakin']

I would second KarenDW's advice. I freeze chocolate cake filled with whipped cream and covered with ganache with no problem. I don't use stabilizer but whip it to firm peaks and have never had a problem. With the orange juice it might be a good safety precaution. It sounds wonderful! Congratulations on reaching your 50th anniversary. We've just celebrated our 18th and I look forward to reaching 50.

[Darienne]

My sincere apologies to everyone to whom I sent the recipe to make this cake. I started to make it today and soon realized that I used a different cake recipe for the actual cake, one that is richer.

The correct recipe is taken from Greg Case & Keri Fisher, One Cake, One Hundred Desserts: Learn One Foolproof Cake Recipe and Make One Hundred Desserts

It does make a difference. Please PM or email me if you need some further information.

Sorry

Edited August 23, 2010 by Darienne (log)