Thawing cakes is easy. Transfer the wrapped cakes from the freezer to the refrigerator one day before decorating/serving. I usually take them out of the freezer container to thaw. The cakes take at least 8 hours to thaw completely in the refrigerator. Sometimes I forget and just let the cake(s) thaw at room temperature, but it’s better they thaw at a slower rate in the refrigerator. The NTP advice to consumers was hard to decode. "There was nothing in our report that should cause alarm...but at the same time, people should make their own decision about which precautions they want to take," says Michael Shelby, Ph.D., director of the NTP's Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction. "The science is just not definitive." You can freeze just about any cake after they’ve cooled completely. Mega flavorful cakes such as banana cake, chocolate cake, carrot cake, and pumpkin cake freeze and thaw beautifully when wrapped in a couple layers, as detailed above. I find their flavor is even better after the freezing/thawing process! Bundt cakes and pound cake freeze wonderfully as well, just make sure they’re completely cooled and wrapped tightly before freezing. For cheesecake instructions, see “How to Freeze Cheesecake” in my cheesecake recipe. FANTASTIC Product! I’ve meant to write a review for this product for a LONG time. I have a story that has deemed me a life-long user of Press ‘n Seal. But what scientists like Hunt and Swan and others have come to realize is that chemicals like BPA and phthalates don't play by the rules. Many of their and other studies of endocrine disruptors have found serious health effects at levels as low as 2 micrograms per one kilogram of body weight — that's 25 times lower than the EPA's safe level ."We've been using an oversimplified mode of measurement," says Scott Belcher, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology and cell biophysics at the University of Cincinnati.

This new understanding turns the "dose makes the poison" logic on its head, suggesting that even tiny levels can cause damage if exposure happens at a particularly sensitive time during development, such as when a fetus's brain or sex organs are forming in the womb. "There are critical windows of vulnerability," says Maida Galvez, M.D., a pediatrician with the Mount Sinai Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit in New York City. "It can be a question of when in addition to how much." Or, as some scientists now put it, "the timing makes the poison," says Andrea Gore, Ph.D., who studies hormone disruptors at the University of Texas at Austin. Lawmakers have jumped into action, too. California, Washington State, and Vermont, for example, have limited the allowable amount of phthalates in children's products, and Congress added a partial phthalate ban to its new consumer-protection law, passed in August. But while legislators have been scurrying to pass protective laws, the federal agencies entrusted with overseeing our health have been slow to respond — and maddeningly vague when they do. The following items contained low levels of phthalates or PBA but the chemicals did not leach into food during microwave heating: Clearly good news: None of the samples of sauce or gravy had detectable levels of either BPA or phthalates. Products tested that contained no phthalates or BPA: Bake and completely cool a cake/cake layers. These step-by-step photos show round cakes, but you can freeze square, rectangle, Bundt cakes, etc. See my 10 best Cake Baking Tips for best practices on baking and cooling cakes.Until recently, researchers had no way to detect the small amounts that are at the heart of this controversy. But "now that we can measure these low levels, we see how incredibly potent these compounds are," says David O. Norris, Ph.D., an endocrinologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder. It's possible, say many researchers, that early exposure to chemicals like BPA is making more of us grow up to be chubby, infertile, or more prone to illness as kids and adults. Messing With Our Hormones In 1988, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set a safe consumer limit for BPA — you could ingest 50 micrograms per one kilogram of body weight per day — it used the old-school tests. Typically, that meant dosing rodents with high levels of the chemical and looking for disease (or death), then reducing the amount of chemical until it had "no observed adverse effect." Usually, a fraction of that level is what's allowed in our food and consumer products. Regarding storage, both Glad Press and Seal and Cling Wrap offer compact and space-saving solutions. Both wraps are typically sold in rolls that can be easily stored in kitchen drawers or cabinets. However, Glad Press and Seal has an advantage in terms of its ability to conform to various shapes and sizes. Its flexible nature allows it to be tightly wrapped around the items, minimizing the need for additional storage space. Cling Wrap, although it can also conform to certain shapes, may not be as versatile in terms of its storage capabilities. For efficient use of space, Glad Press and Seal is the more convenient option. Organization Baker’s Tip: For absolute best taste and texture, avoid freezing delicate cakes like angel food cake, vertical cake, and pavlova. Though you definitely COULD freeze these (and the recipes instruct how), they taste best when freshly made. Since the late 1990s, after Hunt found that mice in BPA-contaminated cages developed egg abnormalities, she and dozens of other researchers have linked the chemical to reproductive problems in rodents, including lower sperm counts and abnormal eggs. Phthalates, too, may cause reproductive problems. In 2006, when Harvard researchers studied 463 men seeking treatment at a fertility clinic, the scientists reported that men with higher levels of certain phthalates in their urine had lower sperm counts and sperm motility, as well as damage to sperm DNA, all of which affect the ability to impregnate a partner.In one of the most important human studies so far, Swan measured phthalates in 85 pregnant women in three U.S. cities — Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Columbia, MO. In that 2005 study, women with the highest phthalate levels were most likely to give birth to sons with smaller penises, smaller testes, and "reduced ano-genital distance" (the space between the testes and the anus). In other words, these baby boys were somewhat de-masculinized, which could signal impaired semen quality and decreased fertility later on. "The results were dramatic," Swan says. "We were surprised by how strong the link was. And, based on animal studies, we're concerned about possibly serious health consequences for these boys as they get older." Early puberty

Write the type of cake and use-by date on a large piece of aluminum foil. I write on the aluminum foil before wrapping the cake just in case the ink seeps through. It has before! While this is terrific news, there's more you should understand. For one thing, we know we have these chemicals in our bodies, and they're getting there somehow. Indeed, nearly every American has BPA coursing through his or her veins, according to data gathered in 2003-04 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — and children have the highest levels of all. The FDA estimates that adult Americans consume, on average, a cumulative 11 micrograms of BPA per day through diet — mostly from the liners in canned foods, say several scientific groups. Is that level a lot? Is it safe? No one really knows yet, but "we're concerned about how much exposure there is to this chemical and possible health repercussions," says Anila Jacob, M.D., a physician and senior scientist for the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit watchdog scientific organization.

I'd be happy to stop doing all this, but until the government starts testing household plastics in ways that will tell us what's safe and what's not, I will go on being a little obsessed. There are many ways moms try to protect their families. My list just got a little longer. Risky Numbers In a lengthy review article, published in 2007, researchers reported that low doses of BPA during development affect brain structure, function, and behavior in rats and mice. If the Chemicals Are So Risky, Why Do We Use Them? With BPA and phthalates, there's nothing like the smoking-lung cancer connection, but there are lots of smoking guns. The research is still in its early days, and much of what we know comes from work with animals. Also, not all phthalates have been linked to health problems. But many prominent scientists believe these chemicals may cause a range of problems related to our hormones: Lower sperm counts and other reproductive abnormalities