The Freezer Trick To Avoid Cubed Cake Meltdowns

Everyone loves a bite of easy-peasy, carefully prepared, and skillfully decorated petit fours or a cubed cake. Whether you like petit four glacé, petit four sec, petit four frais, or any other flavor, you need to be aware of the intricacies of preparing these treats if you want to impress. When preparing these cubed cakes, important and delicate ingredients, such as buttercream and raspberry jam, are included. This means that you must be careful to avoid cake meltdowns.

The process of making cubed cakes may appear difficult, especially to a beginner at home, but it's actually quite straightforward. The number, the proportions of ingredients used, and the method of making the cake chosen, lead to different textures and tastes. Any method you choose – whether the rubbing-in method, creaming, melting, or whisking — to make your cakes, you must be careful to avoid ruining them or having undesired results. This is why you should equip yourself with this important cube cake-making hack that will help these sweet delicacies come out pristine.

The trick to avoid cubed cakes from meltdowns is the freezer, according to Jason Smith, a self-taught chef, and baker, "Prepare, bake, and cool the cake completely. Then, wrap each cake layer in cling film, nice and tight, and place in the fridge for at least two hours," the award-winning Smith tells Southern Living, adding that failing to do so will result in an uneven cake. For this reason, you should freeze your cake slabs before filling and stacking them. Freeze the cakes after stacking, before cutting them into cubes, and before glazing. If you skip any freezing instance, your cake layers may slip apart, the jam may trickle or seep out, and you'll end up with buttercream meltdowns.

Another trick to avoid mistakes when baking cake is to add confectionaries, such as molten marshmallows or powdered milk to the frosting and mix well. This adds stability to your cake and flavor to the icing. To stabilize the buttercream and prevent it from melting off, you can also add meringue powder, pudding powder, or gelatin. Buttercream is highly heat sensitive, so your cakes will still require a trip to the fridge after cooking, up to the time you serve them.