Cake Storage Strategies: Whipped Meringue Frosting Edition

June 12, 2013 9:21 PM

I just frosted a cake using Martha Stewart's whipped frosting recipe, and now I'm stressing out about how to store the cake until tomorrow. Please help!

So my concerns basically break down as:

1) Is this egg white-based recipe "cooked" enough to be safe to eat tomorrow? Can I leave the cake sitting out unrefrigerated or is that just dooming us all to sadness and food poisoning?

2) Does this kind of frosting LAST a full day? We won't be eating it until 7PM tomorrow night.

3) Assuming it won't poison us and can last as long as I need it to, how/where should I store it?

I JUST frosted the cake, so there's still time to scrape it all off and resign myself to a buttercream instead if this is just going to end in disaster otherwise.

I don't normally stress out this much about baking, but the icing recipe I used for my "test bake" wasn't great and I haven't had a chance to try this one out before and see how it ages. We're throwing a party for a friend tomorrow, and I'd hate for the cake to be a mess!

posted by Narrative Priorities to Food & Drink (6 answers total)

I don't think it will doom you to sadness and food poisoning. But this is a meringue-type frosting. It's designed to be eaten right away. It's very sensitive to humidity-- if you let it sit out between now and tomorrow night, it will get a bit rubbery and develop a skin.

It will probably weep out the sugar, as well. That'll mean carmelized beads all over the surface and running down the sides.

So, if you want to proceed, I would definitely cover it and refrigerate it. But I would definitely expect it to develop a skin and sugar weep. If that's not what you want, then you might want to defer to buttercream this time.
posted by headspace at 9:38 PM on June 12, 2013

Yeah, I'd scrape it off, but that doesn't mean you have to default to buttercream unless you have major time pressure tomorrow. Just whip up* another batch close to the time you're serving it. Even if you're mid-party it's a such a quick recipe you can just excuse yourself for a few minutes (do the mise en place before).

*See what I did there? Eh, eh?
posted by charmcityblues at 9:46 PM on June 12, 2013

Scraped!

I'll be at a friend's place, so I can't make more on the spot -- I'll just fall back to an old standard and deal with the butter-induced indigestion this time. ;)

At least now I know how to make whipped frosting, though?
posted by Narrative Priorities at 10:01 PM on June 12, 2013

I love meringue frosting so I hope you enjoyed some of it.
posted by theora55 at 7:15 AM on June 13, 2013

It is delicious and special and people don't encounter it much anymore, so I hope you can re-up. My grandmother used to make it. Though it does caramelize a bit, that's not necessarily a bad thing - We always thought it tasted good when it was a little crystaly.
posted by Miko at 9:38 AM on June 13, 2013

It actually came out PERFECTLY. I'll absolutely be making it again, when the situation is a little less finicky all around.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 11:08 AM on June 13, 2013