Shelf and cake shelf life: storage features and recommendations

For a special occasion or anniversary, we definitely get a cake. This is the main symbol of any event, raising the mood and setting up a festive mood. To date, manufacturers offer us them in a variety of interpretations - with chocolate, nuts, fruits, cottage cheese, all the variations can not be counted. It is these ingredients that are responsible for the shelf life of the cake and require compliance with a number of conditions.

Features of choice

The first thing we pay attention to when buying a cake or a cake is its taste. A confectionery product should attract us and cause a desire to eat it as soon as possible. But there are times that indicate the expiration date of the cake, which many do not notice.

1. The first is the place where confectionery is stored. They should be located in specially designed for this purpose showcases.
2. All equipment must be clean, neatly decorated, with a large viewing angle. Well, if the showcase is glazed from all sides, then you can see in detail the purchased confectionery.
3. An important aspect here is the expiration date, which each producer points to a box with a cake.
4. The unnaturally bright colors of the cream and ornaments indicate a large number of artificial colors and other harmful additives.
5. It is best to ask to give the box in hand and read the composition. In a quality confectionery product that will benefit health, only natural products are used - cottage cheese, sour cream, cream, eggs.

Home cake

With confectionery products from the store to determine easier, but homemade cakes requires utmost care. To prepare such a cake, each hostess tries to choose only the highest quality and natural products, which are stored, as a rule, very briefly. The most delicious ingredient here is the cream, it is also the most dangerous, because it often consists of raw proteins or cream. The shelf life of a home-made cake depends on it. Experienced confectioners recommend:

- store this product only in the refrigerator;

- cook immediately before use;

- use only fresh quality products;

- after manufacturing and impregnation, the shelf life of the cake in the refrigerator can reach eighteen hours, it all depends solely on the ingredients used in it.

On an industrial scale, such a question does not arise, and some products are stored for up to a month and longer due to the preservatives included in their composition, etc. It is not recommended to use such cakes, let alone give them to children. But there are exceptions in this list.

The longest storage period

Depending on what ingredients were used, the shelf life of the cake can vary significantly.

1. The least stored natural homemade confectionery with a cream of fresh proteins or sour cream, this product should be consumed as soon as possible, in order to avoid the development of harmful bacteria in it.
2. Cakes with candied fruits, yogurt or sweet cream cheese can be kept in the refrigerator at a temperature of +3 to +6 degrees for thirty-six hours.
3. Confectionery products from berries, fruits, with the addition of jelly and juice calmly lie up to three days, of course, provided that their composition does not include cream. Even in small amounts, it significantly reduces the shelf life of the cake.
4. There are other types of creams - oil, more often they are prepared on a vegetable basis (from margarine of high fat content), which does not deteriorate for a long time. Such a cake does not change its properties for a whole five days. But considerably loses to the natural in quality of the ingredients used in it and their usefulness.
5. The leading position here is waffle cake with nuts or other interlayer, including preservatives, its shelf life is the longest and can vary from two weeks to a month.

Given these points, you can roughly calculate the expiration dates of cakes, pastries and other confectionery products.

How to store correctly

After buying a cake or making it independently it is important to provide him with the best conditions for better preservation.

• Products based on cream and fruit should be immediately sent to the shelf in the refrigerator.
• Consider that any cake absorbs very much foreign odors, especially meat and sausage. In store versions, a special package is provided, which protects the product from external influences. The homemade cake should be packed in a cardboard box or placed in a special dish with a tight fitting lid.
• The cake is a voluminous product and for him there is not always a place in the refrigerator, so many in the cold season place it on the balcony. Take into account the fact that there is no constant temperature, and its fluctuations and high humidity can significantly reduce the shelf life of cakes with cream.

Storage without refrigerator

Any food product feels much better in the refrigerator, but there are also such confectionery products that are perfectly preserved without it. As a rule, in the store they also just lie on the storefronts, and on their label the shelf life of up to thirty days at a temperature of +18 degrees and relative humidity up to 75% is indicated. These are dry waffle cakes and cakes decorated with praline.

Confectionery products based on biscuit and chocolate are also well stored at room temperature, but you need to consider the glaze fat content. In the warmth, it can flow and the cake will lose its aesthetically attractive original appearance.

A new way of storing - freezing

Experienced housewives know that the shelf life of a curd cake or a product with protein cream can be significantly increased if the product is frozen. This method has been used for a long time, mainly in cafes and restaurants, where they use fast freezing, which will not work at home. But if the holiday has passed, and some of the cake has remained, this way will help keep it fresh until the next home tea party.

• Even if there are formless pieces of cake, they can be frozen and later cooked on their basis a new dessert.
• If there are many products, it is better to divide them portion by part and put them into separate packages, so it will be more convenient to use them later.
• You can separately save biscuits or other cakes, and later collect them in a cake.
• Products with fondant and jelly must not be frozen, they will lose their shape and simply melt.

Tips for choosing a cake

When choosing a cake in a store, pay close attention to the labels on which the release date is indicated. Often in supermarkets such a tag is replaced with a new one.

Bypass the already cut and re-packaged confectionery, as the manufacturer most often hides their expired shelf life.

Do not buy such a product on the street with hands, they are positioned as homemade, but the shelf life of cakes with custard is small (maximum 18 hours), and under open sunlight it is reduced several times.