bake - September 2015 - 18

equipment

Cool Tips
for Cakes
For an increasing number of cake and dessert shops, refrig-

PHOTO: LOVIN OVEN CAKERY

eration and freezers play a vital role in improving efficiency
and quality control from the minute your cake decorators

A word of caution: According to Craftsy.com, it is generally

start making chocolate decorations to the time your elegant

better to keep the ﬂowers in a cool, dry place rather than in a

cakes arrive at wholesale customers' doors in refrigerated

refrigerator or freezer. There are a few reasons for this, such as:

delivery vans.
As the ﬂowers thaw from the chill, condensation can form.
Lovin Oven Cakery owner Ken Slove, who runs a successful
cake shop in Round Lake Beach, Illinois, says he is a ﬁrm

Too much moisture can be removed from the ﬂowers and they

believer in the importance of using refrigerated delivery vans to

can crack in a very dry refrigerator.

ensure your cakes arrive in optimum condition.
Sugar ﬂowers can be time consuming to produce, so it's nice
"What is piece of mind worth? I can't put a dollar ﬁgure on

to have the option of making them in advance. Plus, the longer

that," Slove says. "I know that when our product leaves here

they are able to dry, the more ﬁrm they will remain, making

that it arrives at their facility just like it was when it was in our

them less likely to sag once applied to a cake.

cooler. We don't have any issues. I am not worried about phone
calls saying, 'Hey, the cake fell. Your roses slid down the side of

As long as they are kept cool and dry, sugar ﬂowers will keep

the cake.' So the return on my investment if you're doing 1,100

for a very long time, so they can be created even weeks before

cakes a year, that's recouped pretty quickly."

a wedding or event, and then applied to the freshly baked
cake. So whether you're storing fondant ﬂowers for a birthday

Refrigeration and freezers can play an equally important role in

cake to be served next week or storing gum paste ﬂowers for

enhancing the efficiency of cake production.

a wedding cake to be served in three months, these tips will
serve you well.

Bakeries often will freeze a variety of ﬂavors of cake layers
that are base iced and then thawed prior to decorating. Having

Once dry, sugar ﬂowers should be stored in an airtight

multiple ﬂavors of cake in the freezer allows you to give more

container; a plastic container with a lid is a safe bet.

options to customers who may want their cake in a hurry.
Add some padding to your container, especially if your ﬂowers
At Das Meyer Fine Pastry Chalet in Arvada, Colorado, near

are delicate. Foam or tissue paper applied to particularly deli-

Denver, they produce all sorts of chocolate decorations and

cate parts can help save heartache later.

sugar ﬂowers ahead of time and store in a cool and dry environment, so they have the quantities they need exactly when

Keep the ﬂowers in a cool, dark place to keep them tempera-

they need it.

ture controlled and to keep the colors from fading.

18 < SEP 2015 | bakemag.com

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bake - September 2015

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