Wedding cake (hopefully unlike marriage!) does not last forever. This means that if you've spent the last 10 years staring at a royal wedding slice you bought at an auction in your freezer, now is the time to throw that slice out. It's not a complete myth that you can preserve a piece of the eight-tiered cake you bankrolled for your special day, but there are rules. We asked cake designer/pastry chef Ron Ben-Israel and Chad Pagano, pastry chef instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education, to lay it out the factors to consider when freezing.

How the Cake Is Made

Under what conditions was the cake originally made? That's the number one question to ask when you're considering whether a slice of cake you preserve will end up being a big Petri dish. If a cake is handled in unsanitary conditions when it's being made, it will only take on more harmful bacteria once you trot it out in front of dozens of guests, leave it on the dance floor in open air, and later shuttle it home to shove into the freezer. However, Ben-Israel notes that if the bakery you hired is licensed by the Department of Health (and in his case, they use pasteurized eggs), you're already in a good place once it's time for the main event.

The composition of your cake also makes a difference. Fruit cakes (think: Downton Abbey-style) were originally made to last without refrigeration. Those were soaked in high-proof alcohol. That, combined with sugar, makes a natural preservative. Most cakes today—because of dairy and eggs—have to be frozen to last. To note, fondant cakes or cakes made with citrus curd layers preserve better than alternatives.

If you want to save this cake, there are rules. Photo: Ron Ben-Israel Ron Ben-Israel Cakes

How the Cake Is Served

Pagano says the most danger occurs when a cake is transported to an event location. "I'm most concerned about the night of the event. Was it out on the table for eight hours in the sun at the park and then wrapped up?" If yes, you're risking contamination. No amount of freezing will kill that bacteria. If you're hosting your event at a catering hall that's 68 degrees inside, it's less likely to take on tons of extra bacteria during the ceremony and party.

How the Cake Is Wrapped and Stored

The actual freezing process is not usually the problem, it's that "most people don't wrap the cake properly," says Ben-Israel.

Moisture is the enemy with freezing. Pagano recommends wrapping it as tightly as possible—"there's no such thing as overwrapping"—so that no additional moisture or bacteria collects on the cake. "Every time you open and close the freezer, you let moisture in," he says. "But they froze Walt Disney. If we had that freezer, the cake would be good forever." (Jury's still out on the Walt Disney freezing rumors, but it's true that cakes are great candidates for freezing if you control for contamination before preserving.)