Most people associate a deep freeze with meat, fish, vegetables and fruit. However, baked foods keep equally well below zero. Make full use of your deep freeze this year by preparing cakes, biscuits, pies, savories and even bread, ready for the busy Christmas period or parties. If you are expecting visitors, think of the convenience of having morning and afternoon teas ready in advance. No fuss or bother, simply take items from your freezer to thaw. Pop them in the oven to bake, or reheat if needed.
How To Freeze Cakes
Package unfilled, cakes, without frosting, in plastic bags, seal well, label and freeze. It is advisable to protect them with a double layer of plastic. Cake batter may be frozen in greased cake tins. Wrap and seal well and freeze. To bake, remove packaging and place frozen cake in oven until cooked.
Cream filled cakes
Both fresh cream and synthetic cream may be deep frozen successfully. If fresh cream is used, I suggest leaving it to stand in a refrigerator, after whipping, for at least 2-3 hours, to allow the water content to settle at the bottom of the bowl, then use to fill cakes and sponges. This method prevents a wet base on thawing.
Iced cakes
Iced cakes should be frozen first, then wrapped and sealed for storing in the freezer. Water type icing tends to become very brittle after freezing. Synthetic icing becomes very sticky. I suggest keeping to a simple butter icing using any type of fruit juice (lemon, orange, grapefruit, passion fruit, etc.).
Simple butter icing
1 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon softened butter
1 tablespoon fruit juice
Sift icing sugar into a mixing bowl. Add softened butter and fruit juice and mix with a wooden spoon until smooth and light in texture.
Biscuits
If the basic foundation recipes are used, biscuits can be frozen successfully, either baked or as unbaked dough. If baked, freeze by the free flow method, package carefully, seal well, label and store in freezer. Unbaked dough may be shaped into round rolls or a cylinder shape, then wrapped and frozen. To bake, slice frozen dough thinly as required, place on a baking tray and bake according to recipe.
Savories
All types of delicious savories can be frozen either baked or unbaked. Let the type of filling be your guide as to how long to keep them. Freeze on trays for approximately 2 hours before packaging to prevent crushing when stored in your freezer. Frozen savories can glazed with a little beaten egg then placed into a hot oven (400ºF), straight from the freezer for approximately 20 minutes.
Freezing Bread
All types of bread and rolls freeze well, in fact several of my friends insist that bread improved with the freezing. However, good packaging materials must always be used. Poor packaging will result in a drying out and change in flavor. Frozen sliced bread may be separated easily whilst still frozen, which is great advantage when small quantities are required. If a whole loaf of bread is required in a hurry, simply preheat oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes. If not in a hurry leave bread in wrapping to thaw at room temperature.
Unbaked bread dough may be frozen. Wrap and seal well before freezing in the tin to be used for baking. Thaw before baking.
