Hosting a Friendsgiving feast in a one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment is a wild ride. It’s close quarters, and I come close to setting something on fire each year, but I wouldn’t stop hosting if you paid me. But this November has been especially busy, and for the sake of my sanity, I needed to make Friendsgiving easier to host. I made it potluck-style, bought some rotisserie chickens instead of roasting a turkey, and I swapped out the usual pie for our Almond-Coconut Cake with Cherries and Pistachios. Not only did I receive many compliments from my guests, but I was patting myself on the back, too.

Freeze it like a pro

Usually, I prepare dishes the days leading up to Friendsgiving, but this year I was away until the night before, traveling to and from the Milk Street kitchen, actually. If I tried preparing desserts the evening before Friendsgiving—or worse, the afternoon of—it would be a disaster. I couldn’t risk it, so I prepared what I could the week prior and froze it all.

Most sponge-type cakes freeze well, and in bakeries it’s common to bake and freeze dozens of cakes to prepare for the holidays. So why not do it at home? Yes, pie crusts can be frozen, but this cake can be assembled, fully baked, then frozen. It’s the perfect candidate for anyone who wants to get ahead. Plus, this gorgeous confection is “pre-decorated.” The cherries and pistachios scattered across the top are what make it beautiful. Just pop it onto a serving dish and it’s presentation-ready.

Fruits and nuts thaw well

Technically, anything can be frozen; it’s the thawing that can be tricky. Before I freeze something, I always consider whether there’s anything that will curdle when thawed. Desserts with delicate yogurt, cream or custard bases are poor freeze-ahead candidates because of this. Our Almond-Coconut Cake with Cherries and Pistachios, as you can tell by the title, is mostly nuts (and drupes), which freeze and thaw with no change in texture or flavor. The cherries hold up just fine, too. You can even use already frozen cherries—great news, since cherries aren’t in season. The fruit holds up, even after back-and-forth stints in the freezer, without drying out or losing its flavor.

One of the last steps in the recipe, before baking, is to sprinkle the cake’s surface with granulated sugar. This gives it a really beautiful, thin sheen of a sugar crust once baked. I was worried freezing would wreck it, but it was still shiny and intact when I brought it out a week later.

How to freeze and thaw this cake

Cool your cake completely before freezing. For extra assurance, I like to pop it in the fridge after it cools to room temperature, just to make sure it’s not the least bit warm. A warm cake will release moisture, creating a humid environment in the freezer. Though not ruined, it will be a little damp, and that sugar sheen will disappear.

And (obviously) don’t dust the cake with powdered sugar before freezing it. Powdered sugar loves to absorb moisture and looks best when freshly applied.

Move the cake from the freezer to the fridge the night before you plan to serve it. The next day, carefully remove the cold cake from its container and put it on a serving plate. Allow it to come to room temperature for an hour before finishing with powdered sugar and serving.

It gets better with age

I applaud a cake that freezes well, but a cake that yields excellent flavor days later—that’s a standing ovation. Even after a few days at room temperature, the leftover cake was not in the least bit dry, like many day-old cakes can be, but more moist. The cake had evolved. Dual layers of sugar on top drew in moisture (sugar, like salt, is hygroscopic and attracts water), creating a syrupy layer on the surface of the cake. It’s hard to beat a cake that freezes well, includes its own decorations and makes its own icing, too.

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Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Allie Chantorn Reinmann is a Digital Staff Writer for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street. She’s a Thai-American chef who earned her diploma for Pastry and Baking Arts at The Institute of Culinary Education and worked professionally for over a decade honing her craft in New York City at places like Balthazar, Bien Cuit, The Chocolate Room, Billy’s Bakery and Whole Foods. Allie took her know-how from the kitchen to the internet, writing about food full-time at Lifehacker for three years and starting her own YouTube channel, ThaiNYbites. You can find her whipping up baked goods for cafés around Brooklyn, building wedding cakes and trying her hand (feet?) at marathon running. She’s working on her debut cookbook and lives in Brooklyn, NY.