Shelf life of cakes: rules and conditions of storage

Cake - not only a decoration of the festive table, but also a symbol of the sun, fertility. The variety of confectionery products is striking. They are made from different types of dough, soaked in syrup, filled with cream, condensed milk, jam or liquid marmalade. They are decorated with fruits, berries, chocolate, mastic inscriptions, drawings and three-dimensional figures. If you can't eat a dessert right away, the question arises where and how you can save it.

General rules for cake storage

It is not enough to learn how to make delicious cakes, you need to know how to preserve them, so that the work done is not wasted.

The delicacy, regardless of the composition will not spoil before time, if you follow the general principles of storage:

1. Do not leave perishable products on the table.
2. Use a refrigerator.
3. Keep in mind that the shelf life at 2-6°C is 5 days.
4. Pack dessert in cardboard, plastic boxes, bowls with a lid or cover with a plastic cover for heating in the microwave.
5. Do not place the product near sharp cheeses, meat, fish smoked meats, spices.

To avoid the formation of condensation, send homemade cakes in the refrigerator after the cakes cooled completely, the cream setting.

Shelf life of popular cakes

Shelf life of the consumer properties of the dessert depends on the type of dough, cream, fillings. The longest stored cakes are waffle cakes, meringue cakes and cakes made of sand dough.

Carrot cake

This healthy dessert contains a lot of carrots, walnuts, and relatively little sugar. Since cream cheese is used to sprinkle and line the cakes, the shelf life is limited to 72 hours from the time of preparation.

Chocolate

At 1-7 degrees, chocolate confections made from succulent biscuits with cocoa added will not spoil for a week, provided there are no perishable products in them.

Lemon

Lemon biscuit with sour cream is edible for three days after baking and assembling. Lemon curd, which resembles a creamy pudding, is kept in the refrigerator for 10 days, in the freezer for up to three months.

Red Velvet

A popular beautiful dessert with cream cheese and a chocolate aftertaste, it keeps up to 120 hours at 4-6 degrees, from -18°C - 6 months.

Spicy

There are over 100 recipes for spice cakes with different fruit, cream fillings. A classic recipe includes cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Spices are added to the biscuit baking mix, consisting of flour, fruit, eggs. The maximum shelf life in the refrigerator is 5 days.

Napoleon

Napoleon is classified as perishable food. Cake with custard, sour cream retains consumer properties for 72 hours, with cream - 6 days. The shelf life of store-bought cakes is indicated by the manufacturer on the package.

Waffle

Waffle, chocolate-waffle treats with praline keep well at three to eighteen degrees for 2-4 weeks.

Up to a month keeps a dessert filled with creamy cream of vegetable ingredients.

Cream Cake

Homemade cream cake does not spoil within three days after the end of the technological process, store - up to five days.

Liver Cake

Nourishing liver mincemeat crusts drenched with a sauce based on sour cream or mayonnaise, decorate the table no worse than sweet products. The liver cake is placed in the refrigerator completely cooled and stored for 48 hours.

To extend the shelf life, professionals recommend to keep the cakes separately, to blot them before serving them on the table.

Cakes without eggs

Vegan desserts are edible for no more than 24 hours. The shelf life can be extended in the freezer.

How to store mastic cakes

To preserve the preservation of cakes with mastic, it is important to observe two conditions:

• Do not allow drying out, the formation of small cracks;
• Protect from moisture.

To do this, the confectionery is stored in cardboard, plastic boxes or wrapped in food film. The best place for saving consumer properties is the refrigerator shelf, where a cake with mastic does not spoil from three to five days, depending on the type of filling.

The taste of the dessert will improve if you take it out of the fridge a couple of hours before serving. The formation of condensation does not affect the organoleptic properties of the dessert. Water droplets can easily be removed with paper napkins.

Mastic flowers, other three-dimensional figures stored in the freezer, the cake is decorated just before serving.

Peculiarities of storing a cake with mirror icing

Mousse desserts with mirror glaze keep in the refrigerator for 72 hours. Uncoated cakes can be kept in the freezer for a month.

Coat the cake with icing after defrosting before serving. It is not kept in the freezer, because after defrosting, the coating loses its gloss and cracks.

Can I freeze cakes?

The dough endures freezing easily. Biscuit fat cakes in particular store well. After defrosting, they become tastier. Storage in the freezer ready cakes depends on the layers, fillings, coatings.

Preserve the taste, structure and do not flow after defrosting desserts:

• with chocolate ("Truffle", "Prague");
• Mousse cakes, in which freezing is provided by the technology of preparation;
• products with butter cream, jam, jam;
• "Red velvet" with mascarpone.

Confectioners do not advise freezing sweet products with sour cream, cream, whipped egg whites, condensed milk. When thawing, you may encounter a number of problems - the formation of lumps, clumps, separation of whey, color changes.

Storage in the freezer "bird's milk" depends on the gelling component. If you used pectin or agar when cooking, there will be no changes. Gelatin in the composition will make the soufflé loose and cloudy.

How long can you keep at room temperature?

Without a refrigerator, cakes do not spoil for 3 to 72 hours, depending on the composition.

Less than others retain the taste, shape, structure of confectionery products with layers of cream, cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream. Desserts with custard keep longer - 5-7 hours.

Up to 20 hours can be kept on the table "Napoleon", from 72 to 120 hours souffle, dainties with praline, butter and protein cream.

Waffle cakes, meringue cakes - 15-30 days, bird's milk - 72 hours and honey cakes - 36 hours are kept longer than others without refrigerator.

How to know if the cake or cakes have gone bad

Clear signs of spoilage - mold, sour unpleasant smell. If the cake is purchased, you should check the expiration date indicated on the package. It is better to refuse an expired dessert, so as not to get food poisoning.

Spoiled treats are recognized not only by mold and repulsive smell. Get rid of the confectionery when the cream splitting into a thick base and whey, the appearance of sourness in the taste, the formation of oily streaks on the decoration.

Cake aging is indicated by dried, tasteless nuts, smoothing of sharp corners on the figures, meringue falling out in pieces when cut, loose or cream-soaked "rubber" cakes.

To eliminate the risks of food poisoning, immediately after cutting and distributing the cake, place it in the refrigerator. If it is voluminous, you can use the balcony, provided that the dessert will not be exposed to sub-zero temperatures.