Using Dry Ice to Keep Desserts/Cake Cold

Wait, did your venue not offer a suggestion as to what you should do with these items? I feel that if they are a reputable venue that this should come up fairly often, and that they should have a plan in mind.

I'm hoping you have a caterer that can help you with this.

I would imagine your catering company would have suggestions for you. Dry ice is OK as long as you handle it properly but can cause injury.

Oh god, she's self-catering, isn't she?!

Ask your caterer. This should be something they handle!!

I'm certain your caterer would have some excellent suggestions for you.

Be careful with dry ice. It needs to be handled very carefully, usually with special gloves and tongs. It can cause 2nd and 3rd degree burns.

My hope is she's not self-catering but her caterer is allowing her to bring in desserts in lieu of using them...

Unlikely but I try to be optimistic.

If you are going to a bakery, their cake should be stable enough to be fine on display for a few hours. Cakes are best served at room temperature or they can seem dry

Hey all! I have a company catering the food then a separate bakery delivering desserts and the cake. I haven't asked my caterer about this yet..actually didn't even think to. He may have some advice. But the bakery didn't have advice as far as dry ice goes. They don't have experience with it. Just said if using coolers to put boxes in plastic bags so boxes don't get wet.

Can you have the bakery deliver about an hour before you expect to cut the cake/serve desserts?

What kind of desserts are you having that they require to stay that cold?

It's a nursery that has receptions in their old warehouse. They do a lot of weddings. You would think by now they would have a refrigerator. I pretty much have to do everything myself. I asked them what to do in this situation and they said usually people just do cake so it hasn't ever been an issue. She's not very bright though so who knows. I'm trying to get the bakery to deliver as close as possible but who knows, gotta have a plan just in case. I'm doing mini tiramisu, mini fruit cups, mini cake shots, chocolate covered strawberries, mini chocolate mousse cups and cannolis that need to be kept cool.

The baker that I have a consultation with in a couple weeks asked when my reception starts so she can get there as close to it as possible without guests seeing her since my venue is a barn in Florida. The baker should be able to do that for you.

Oh my. I just had a :derp: moment. When you said it's in a nursery, my mind first went to a day care center. Like, wtf. Why are they getting married where people drop their kids off for the day?!? Lol. Then it hit me...

View Quoted Comment What is wrong with self-catering if that is what you want/can afford?
This comment seems condescending.

View Quoted Comment

Self-catering is problematic for a number of reasons. It's not recommended.

A lot of scrutiny with no viable information remotely pertaining to your question, that’s a bummer. I reserve any judgment (as who the hell am I?) and I direct you towards Quora. I find it necessary when getting the runaround from arm-chair quarterbacks. This is a great sight but skne questions are beyond wedding wires scope. Ask it on quora, follow the prompts and you’ll have several solid answers with 24 hours.
Best of luck, you got this!

This is your baker's responsibility, not yours

I would recommend you stay away from dry ice unless you are trying to keep something very frozen. Coming from the biotech/pharma world, we use dry ice to ship samples at -80°C (standard household freezer is at -20°C) so it will definitely freeze your food. As long as your coolers are properly insulated and not constantly being opened and closed, regular ice should be perfectly fine for the time you need. If you're worried about the ice melting, you could consider buying bulk packs of gel packs to freeze and use those to help keep cool instead.