Life can certainly get busy so I'm fully aware that it can be overwhelming to insert both baking and decorating a cake into our lives (especially on the same day!). That's why I believe it's important to have ways to accomplish cake creations in steps for the home baker - especially if you'd love to do this more often! Personally, I almost always split the baking and decorating to two different days to have some balance between my passions and everything else going on in my day-to-day. In order to do so, it's fundamental to understand the basics of cake layer storage to ensure your layers will still taste as delicious as the day you made them.
After removing your cake layers from the oven, you'll want to give them a short amount of time to cool inside of the pan - about five minutes should do the trick.
Once you've given your cake layers their five minutes to cool, go ahead and place a wire cooling rack on your counter. If you don't have a cooling rack - don't panic! There are ways to makeshift a method that will allow your cakes to breathe on all sides. For example, if you have any metal cookie cutters on hand, you can arrange these in a way that will hold your cakes above the counter. Another example is using your stovetop grates if you have a gas oven. One last example that I have is using tin foil. Roll-up pieces of tin foil and place them a couple inches apart or so to create your own rack. There are other methods out there - so go ahead and use what you have available to you.
Once you have a cooling rack ready, grab your cake pans one at a time (feel free to use oven mitts or a towel you have on hand if it's too hot to the touch) and flip each pan upside down over the cooling rack. Your cake layers should easily drop out of the pan onto the rack as long as you have used my recommended grease and flour method. For more information on this, please see the Prepping Cake Pans blog. Cool your layers on the rack until they are room temperature. For optimal freezer storage, you don't want your layers to get completely cold - allow them to still have a slight warmth to the touch.
Saran wrap is going to be your friend with storing cake layers. Using your go-to brand of saran wrap, rip or cut off a piece and lay it flat on your countertop. Place one cake layer in the middle of this piece.
One at a time, fold the right and left ends of the saran wrap to cover up your cake layer.
Now, one at a time, fold the bottom and top ends of the saran wrap to cover up your cake layer.
In order for your cake layers to be properly stored, you're going to want to double layer each one for protection in the freezer. Because of this, prepare another piece of saran wrap to lay flat on your countertop. Flip the cake layer over that you just finished wrapping (so that the loose ends are on the bottom) and place your cake layer in the middle again.
Once again, complete steps 4-5 with this second piece of saran wrap.
Once you are finished with the second layer of saran wrap, flip your cake layer over again (so the loose ends are on the bottom) and proceed to place each layer in the freezer for storage. If you can help it, it's ideal to not stack your cake layers while storing as that can negatively affect the shape and make your cake more difficult to decorate. Once in the freezer, I would suggest only storing your cake layers for 3 days maximum to retain the proper taste and texture. If you do need to store your layers for a longer amount of time, you'll want to repeat steps 3-5 again to triple wrap each layer. In doing so, you can likely store your layers for up to a week, but any length of time after that you'll run the risk of having dry cakes.
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