Expert Advice; How to Wrap, Store, and Keep Cake Fresh
(for layer cake, sheet cake, pound cake, quick breads, and even cupcakes. We’ll break it down into into frosted and unfrosted, cut and un-cut cakes, and then take a look at when refrigeration might be necessary.)
• Unfrosted and Un-Cut Cake - Wrap these tightly in plastic wrap, top, sides, and bottoms, so the plastic is touching the sides of the cake (that is to say, don’t just drape the plastic over the top). Second to this, go for a plastic bag with a “zip-lock” type seal. Store these wrapped cakes on the counter at room temperature, and they’ll keep for about a week before starting to stale on you. Oil-based cakes tend to keep a day or two longer than butter-based ones.
To keep cakes for longer than a week, try freezing them.
• Frosted and Un-Cut Cake - The frosting actually acts like plastic wrap here, protecting the cake from air and moisture in the environment. A frosted cake can be kept at room temperature for 4-5 days. Cover it with a cake keeper or an overturned bowl to protect it from dust, pet hair, and other things in the air (plastic wrap isn’t necessary and would smoosh up the lovely frosting). Parks says that she actually keeps her frosted cakes in the microwave!
• Cut Cake, Frosted or Unfrosted - Parks says to think of sliced cake as a living organism. As soon as you make a cut, moisture begins to escape and cause the cake stale more quickly. If you can, cover the sliced edges with more frosting to protect the cake from moisture loss. Otherwise, press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the sliced side and make sure it sticks. Then proceed with covering and storing the cake as for the un-cut version. Cut cake keeps for a little less time, about 3-4 days.
• When to Refrigerate Cakes - Cakes both frosted and unfrosted, cut and un-cut, are perfectly fine at room temperature for several days. Refrigeration is only necessary if your apartment gets very hot during the day (As Parks says, “High moisture + high sugar + high temp = bacteria feeding frenzy”) or if you’re making a cake that won’t be served for more than three days, like when baking cake ahead for a party or special occasion.
To refrigerate, wrap unfrosted cakes in plastic to protect it from absorbing any weird fridge smells and to protect it from drying out, and then unwrap it to warm up on the counter before serving. For frosted cakes, chill the cake uncovered for fifteen minutes to harden the icing, then wrap it in plastic wrap.
Credits:
(Images: Funfetti Cake/Faith Durand and Carrot Sheet Cake/Emma Christensen)
“If You Know Someone Who Doesn’t Believe Sexism Exists, Show Them This”
Link here: [x]a few weeks ago i was buying a Command Hook at Home Depot. the guy at the register asked if i “needed help installing” it. i lightheartedly responded with a “no thanks, i think i can handle a sticker”, but i’ve been using the self-check out at hardware stores ever since.
i watched this video last night, and it reminded me that all these daily occurrences snowball in to a social mindset that is much bigger and much more threatening. for example, a few stories from the above mentioned site that have been weighing heavily on my mind:
-“Julianne - Walking the eighth grader I babysit from her school, a bunch of teenage boys stuck their heads out of their car and yelled something sexually explicit. We were the only ones on the road. The girl looked up at me with a scared expression and asked why. I didn’t know what to tell her.”
-“Ren - I was in a pub wearing a baby doll dress, when a guy in front of me stuck his hand up my dress. I yelled and lashed out, he replied by punching me in the face and laughing.”
i know many women don’t share stories like this because they’ve learned it will be met with comments like “that happens all the time, get used to it” or “take it as a compliment, he was trying to hit on you”. i hope being able to share stories on a platform like this brings awareness to the issues with attitudes such as these.
(Source: velvetlovepocket)
"Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light."
— Groucho Marx (via penseesduchoeur)
(Source: the-healing-nest, via teachingliteracy)
(via seaghostsoaring)
![tastefullyoffensive:
[via]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/f9104474c4e259b0d5f3d92a95c35e84/tumblr_mogjiln6lp1qewacoo1_r1_500.jpg)
bell hooks resources
If you have any more, or alternate links just in case these ever get removed, feel free to add to the list. Pass the resources along!
- Understanding Patriarchy (pdf) (from erosum)
- We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity (pdf). Also here.
- Where We Stand: Class Matters (pdf)
- Feminism Is For Everybody (pdf)
- Remembered Rapture: Dancing With Words (pdf)
Black Women Intellectuals (pdf) (from Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life with Cornel West)
(via seaghostsoaring)
why must we play god
For the inner gamer/stoner
no. why would you think that. this isn’t “for” anyone. this is a sick monument to the folly of man
I had no idea Microsoft was making cupcakes.
I am a monument to all your sins
Is it bad that I want to try this?
I wonder if it’s just a novelty and instead it’s something like, almonds covered in red sugar powder and lime frosting…. I want to believe
(via lemonlove)
