Freezing iced Christmas cake

littlemoney

I've been given a Tesco finest iced Christmas cake with a best before  date of 31 January 2025 and will not eat it all by then.

 I freeze rich fruit cake but never an iced cake. Will it successfully freeze so I can continue to enjoy it for a longer period.

Brie

Not quite the same thing but mom always used to batch bake all the Christmas stuff mid autumn and put it all in the freezer ready to pull out and thaw.  That included iced squares.  Freezing caused no problems at all (other than one brother raiding the freezer and eating the icing off everything....)

Katiehound

That's only 5 weeks away, surely it will keep out of the freezer for a bit more than that? I think it will freeze but perhaps the icing will discolour?

Fruit cake pre icing keeps for months and months especially if being 'fed' And what about folk who keep the top tier (or whatever) of their wedding cake?

QrizB

Speaking only for myself, I wouldn't bother freezing it. I'd just keep it in an airtight tin. My Christmas cake regularly lasts to Easter (and sometimes to July) that way.

I've never had one "go off" although the royal icing does get quite hard!

35har1old

littlemoney said:

I've been given a Tesco finest iced Christmas cake with a best before  date of 31 January 2025 and will not eat it all by then.

 I freeze rich fruit cake but never an iced cake. Will it successfully freeze so I can continue to enjoy it for a longer period.

What does say on the box ?

-taff

freezing it will probably be ok but your icing might be a bit damp when it thaws

On-the-coast

For items with long “use by” dates like this, nothing happens to make the cake edible on the 31st of January and inedible on the 1st of Feb.  

If you’re storing in somewhere airtight & coolish it will certainly last a month longer than advertised, and probably longer. 

The icing & marzipan may have ingredients that will go off first (and the higher quality / more natural they are, the quicker they will go off). So you could think about removing that part. 

Freeze it if you’re worried.  It as already said it might come out with the icing looking odd. 

gwynlas

If you choose to freeze it you could portion it up so you aren't left wasting any, I;m thinking quarters.

FlorayG

I wouldn't bother. It will keep for months after the 'best by' date. I had a Christmas Pudding this year dated 'best by April 2024' and it was lovely

button_box

Years ago there was a "calendar" on MSE which went through money saving jobs month by month. Whoever put it up removed the icing and marzipan and froze leftover cake for Easter.

 Personally I would freeze the cake in portions to take out as a treat with coffee or to include in packed lunches. Most baked goods will freeze. If the cake is iced with a Royal icing, rather than a fondant icing, and contains more egg it might break down a bit on thawing but should taste. ok.

Rosa_Damascena

On-the-coast said:

For items with long “use by” dates like this, nothing happens to make the cake edible on the 31st of January and inedible on the 1st of Feb.  

If you’re storing in somewhere airtight & coolish it will certainly last a month longer than advertised, and probably longer. 

The icing & marzipan may have ingredients that will go off first (and the higher quality / more natural they are, the quicker they will go off). So you could think about removing that part. 

Freeze it if you’re worried.  It as already said it might come out with the icing looking odd. 

Definitely hack it off.

Anyone who can resist Christmas cake is a stronger person than me! For me there would be a single reason to freeze it once opened: to stop me from scoffing the lot!