It’s About Never Eating Cold Cake Again.

Fruit is refreshing when cold. Yogurt is most deliciously creamy when chilled. Ice? Transcendental. But Cupcake: This is where I have to stop you. For the love of all saturated fats and all that is good, please stop eating cold brownies.

There are exceptions to this, of course. Ice cream cakes, custard toppings and whipped cream have a legitimate cold chest business. In particular, this applies to cakes and buttercream frosting. They are best left at room temperature before serving. Not because it cuts better (doesn’t cut), or because it looks better (the appearance is the same), but because it tastes better. I say this as a distant friend from food, but also as a professional cake decorator: taste is the number one priority, and cold saturated fat has no taste for anything. If your cake batter uses butter as the main fat and buttercream as the icing, you’re robbing your taste buds with every cold bite.

Try it: it’s an experiment, not a challenge. Go cut some cold butter off a stick and eat it. Take some softened butter and do the same. You can feel the difference in texture and how the softened butter covers most of your tongue. (I think you can do this with your fingertips, but what’s the fun in that?) Cold saturated fats are waxy, but the balls are cold and stick to each other. As they ferment in your mouth, only the outer layer of fats will melt at body temperature and get a chance to stick to your taste buds and deliver flavor. The rest will pass by to continue on their way. This also applies to other flavors mixed with cake and icing. Aromas of chocolate, almonds and salted caramel are all Han Solo in the carbonite butter of your cake. When the whole piece becomes warm, the flexible, softened fat globules are allowed to melt, cover the entire mouth and reveal the taste of the cake. For the same reason, you should serve your expensive cheeses at room temperature .

The second issue is the dry texture of the cold cake, which I find grainy and unpleasant. Although this is a different result, the cause is the same: cold saturated fat is solid. A cold butter-based cake feels dry in the mouth. It is ideal for cutting, splitting or shaping when decorating a cake, but not for eating. Cake at room temperature, or slightly warm, porous, soft and tender. (If you’re eating a butter-based cake, you’ll notice that this doesn’t happen because butters remain pliable when cold.)

Eating a cold cake results in a waxy, dry, tasteless experience. Cake makers want you to enjoy cake at its peak in taste and texture. Leave at room temperature. Most butter cakes and buttercreams keep well on the counter for five days. Keep the cake well-covered on the counter for easy access (and as a bonus, seeing it all the time keeps you from forgetting you have the cake). If you must store it in the refrigerator, bring the cake to the table at least an hour or two before burying it.