Preserving your wedding cake top is usually not the highest thing on your list of priorities, but in a year after your wedding you’ll want the cake top. My wedding cake baker offered to bake us a new cake top on our 1 year anniversary, and we took her up on that! But in-case you want to preserve your cake top, here’s some great tips on how to do that.

Know Your Cake’s Shelf Life
Some cakes freeze better than others. The more delicate the cake ingredients, the drier your cake will become in the freezer. Cakes with a longer shelf life: Chocolate, hazelnut, almond, and carrot cake. Cakes that may not last as long in the freezer: white cake, cake with fresh fruit, and cakes with whipped cream fillings.

Consider Ordering A Copycat Cake
We did this for our wedding - If you have a cake that won’t hold up in the freezer, do as many couples do and order a fresh cake tier in the same flavor as your original wedding cake for your one-year anniversary. Even if you have a heartier cake, Sylvia Weinstock, of Sylvia Weinstock Cakes in New York, recommends storing cakes for no longer than two months, and forgoing the first-anniversary tradition. Like anything else, after a year in the freezer, any cake will be a bit stale. If you do decide to save your cake for the full year, focus on the nostalgia, not the flavor.

How To Wrap Up Your Cake Tier
Instruct catering staff to take off the top tier of the wedding cake and box it for transport. Appoint a “cake captain” (one of your family members or friends) to take it home. Once it’s home, that person should do the following:

  1. Remove the sugar flowers and set them aside.
  2. Chill the cake well before wrapping it up so that the icing hardens. This way it won’t stick to the plastic wrap and make a mess.
  3. Wrap the (unadorned) cake in several layers of plastic wrap — not aluminum foil, which can cause freezer burn.
  4. Seal the wrapped cake in an air-tight bag and place it in the freezer.
  5. Snag a ribbon (from your bouquet, the centerpieces, your hair, a gift) and tie it around the cake package to mark it so that you don’t mistake it for anything else.

This post is part of a series about picking the perfect wedding cake and all the things included in the process. Yesterday we told you about all the hidden wedding cake costs. Topics in this article include: wedding cake top, wedding cake toppers, personalized wedding cake toppers, vintage wedding cake topper, funny wedding cake toppers