1/2 a cake???

[AntePrincess]

I'll second (third, fourth...) the suggestions to go with a from scratch recipe, then make a full recipe and freeze your surplus. I love the suggestion of cupcakes, but if you want to go for the old fashioned cake effect, I've seen smaller cake pans around from sources like Vermont Country Store and sold as toaster oven baking pans (your toaster oven, the grown-ups, EZ-Bake oven).

Of course, if you go with the from scratch version and you have luck like me, you'll find you need to half eggs or something similar for your icing recipe.

 

[ceecee]

A lady I babysat for as a teenager, used to buy store bought bday type cake and slice into tiny little slices and freeze. She always said help yourself to the frozen cake! I thought ugk, frozen cake! Then I tried it and loved it. Silly me, I thought she meant to eat it frozen! Turns out if you just let it sit out for a few hours it was cake again.
People freeze wedding cake for a year to eat on their first anniversary. We did and it was great.

 

[crisi]

Cake recipes are difficult to half or double and have them turn out. Has to do with the baking powder. There are formulas you can use to convert the recipe, but you can't just halve it. (Well, you can, and maybe it will be ok depending on how sensitive you are to taste and the original recipe).

When I lived alone, I used to take my cake mix and make two rounds. I'd wrap one tightly in saran wrap and foil and freeze it, then eat the other. Worked fine. Cakes freeze well and I've sold commercial wedding cakes that have spent a week in my freezer and still tasted great.

I wouldn't bother to bake a cake from scratch unless you really enjoy baking or have a special recipe. For your basic chocolate or white cake, boxes are really good - and produce very consistant results.

 

[leight]

I have been freezing cake for years! More often than not it is cupcakes- I will make a box of yellow and a box of chocolate and when the kids have friends over I can whip up some icing- use cool whip or fill with pudding or custard.

I just made a small funfetti cake for my daughter's sleepover- only 6 kids. I made 3 thin layers & 6 cupcakes. I softened icecream then spread it between the layers. I froze the whole thing for 4 hours then 'iced' with cool whip and froze again. It was a really pretty icecream cake and I used what I had on hand. One of the girls didn't like the mint chip ice cream so I defrosted a cupcake and split it into 3 small layes and made a mini version with chocolate ice cream. The kids loved it!

 

[snarlingcoyote]

I very dimly remember from my old 1975 Joy of Cooking book that you shouldn't try to halve a cake recipe. Double it or treble it certainly, but not halve it.

I don't remember the reason (happy cooks who get to eat the leftovers?) but I do seem to remember that.

Fortunately, as all the PPs have noted, cake (or any sort of bread, really) freezes very well and thaws easily and quickly.

 

[estherhead]

I freeze cake all the time. ALL the time. Refrigerating a cake can dry it out. The reason is that if you stick it in your fridge uncovered then pull it out & bring it to room temperature the condensation evaporates and dries out the cake.

However, freezing is not the same. If you wrap up the cake well in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil you can freeze it up to a year (you know, like the wedding cake topper.) The trick is to pull it out of the freezer and let it come to room temperature STILL FULLY COVERED in the foil & saran wrap. All the moisture stays put.

I've frozen the tops of wedding cakes for friends & had it taste exactly like their wedding day an entire year later. I've also done a tasting with my sister in law who insisted that frozen cake tastes gross. So I baked a white cake, filled it & frosted it. Wrapped it up & froze it.

Then a month later I made an identical cake & pulled the frozen one out. We taste tested. Every single person chose the FROZEN cake as the fresh cake.

And as the poster above me said, I also freeze homemade bread, zucchini bread (you know all the zucchini at the end of summer?), banana bread, etc. Just thaw them the same way (in the wrappings) so that they don't dry out.

 

[aribelle]

We're trying to be budget conscience and not be wasteful. We like dessert in our house, especially cake. Since there is only three of us, a whole cake is too much, and in the past just goes to waste. It ends up in the trash...not finished. So, I'd like to make half as much of a boxed cake mix. I can easily divide all the liquid ingredients in half, but what do I do when it comes to the eggs? All recipes call for three eggs. Since I can't divide an egg in half, can I use one egg or should I use two eggs? How will this change the texture or taste of the cake when done?

Please give me your baking thoughts and expertise. Thanks.

Just make the whole cake but before frosting it, cut it in half and freeze half to use next week (or next month). If you prefer it look nicer than a cake cut in half, freeze one layer and frost the other layer.

Wrap the layer you're going to freeze in plastic wrap and then put in a freezer bag. When you're ready to use it, put it in the fridge in the morning and it will be thawed and ready to frost by dinner.

We actually do this more with cupcakes now than with whole cakes.....we bake all 24 cupcakes, keep 4 to frost for tonight, plastic wrap the other individually and then put 4 in each freezer bag. Voila....dessert for 4 of us six times!

We tried nuking them in the microwave to thaw once when we really wanted cupcakes but didn't want to wait.....they were ok....I think I nuked too long. But defrosting in the fridge never a problem.

We make frosting with just milk and powdered sugar, add cocoa if you want chocolate. Drizzle it on. This is quick and easy and drizzle means you use less but it still tastes great. Calorie cutting to boot!

 

[pearlieq]

I halve cake and brownie mixes all the time and I've never had an issue with how they turned out. Maybe I'm just not too picky, but they always taste great to me.

In the situation you describe, I'd either use 2 eggs or 1 egg and 1/4 cup of yogurt or sour cream--whatever I had on hand that needed to get used up. It always bakes up just fine for me.

Freezing baked items also works really well. I froze 3/4 of my birthday cake this year since it was just so huge. I cut it into individual portions and microwave them for 1 minute on 50% power and they turn out great.

 

[teacup princess]

Ok, maybe not really healthy, but then neither is cake.

Have you ever tried to make a cola cake. You take 1 boxed cake mix and one can of soda (even diet works). Mix them together and whala, cake. You could easily do this with a half a cake mix and a half can of soda. Try it. It's really pretty good and super easy. I think chocolate tastes the best.

 

[SaraMc]

I decorate cakes on the side and always freeze them first. Makes like easier. I would bake the whole cake, take what you need. ( perhaps make a 1 layer cake instead of two) and freeze the rest.

Another option. Cupcakes, freeze what you dont need right now and keep out what you do.

 

[gk90]

Re. the 1 or 2 egg question, you can also use 2 medium eggs instead of 1 1/2 large or XL eggs.

 

[chickflick]

I would make cupcakes instead. Then freeze as many as you want. This is what I do with cake mix. I never make them into cakes. Or do as some have said by baking 2 rounds and freezing the 2nd one after it cools off. Less work.

I do this too! I make a tray of 12 cupcakes(use for special dessert and then send them unfrosted in lunch boxes) and then a 8X8 cake--easy to pull out of the freezer before company, thaw, heat it up in micro & drizzle a little choc sauce over it--Instant dessert.

 

[scrapquitler]

Bake the cake, cut it in half and freeze it (before you put the frosting on it) Or even easier, bake cupcakes and freeze them (again, without frosting).

 

[annsteere]

I do this all the time. I just like the idea of a fresh half cake. (I often cook it in a 8X8 square pan).

I use one whole egg and one egg white. Turns out great and is ever-so-slightly healthier.

 

[bucket o' butter]

Would you freeze the wet mixture...or the baked cake? Which do you think would turn out better after freezing?

I would freeze the baked cake. I decorate wedding cakes in my "spare time" and will make the cakes several weeks ahead of time. I know it sounds gross, but they are very good. Actually, sometimes they are better than the fresh ones, believe it or not. I freeze the cakes when they are still warm, so the moisture gets locked in with them. I wrap them really good with several layers of saran wrap and put them in the freezer. I have never frozen cake batter, so I don't know how that would turn out. It couldn't hurt to try it once though. Good luck!

 

[LadyBeBop]

My mom always put an extra egg in her cakes anyway.

Makes the cake more moist.

 

[Mad4Mickey]

I would make cupcakes instead. Then freeze as many as you want. This is what I do with cake mix. I never make them into cakes. Or do as some have said by baking 2 rounds and freezing the 2nd one after it cools off. Less work.

I do the Muffin sized cupcakes. I wish I knew where I bought this darned thing it makes them really big and 6 at a time . I freeze what we are not goign to eat . My son can eat a whole one I also froze my cakes when I took my classes because I work so I needed to be able to pull them out and defrost them right before I went to class

 

[PaulaSue]

Honestly the simple way is to make 2 rounds and freeze one. Easy