Hi Everyone,
I will be doing a 3 tiered stacked cake and wonder how fillings hold up under the weight of the tiers. Would a mousse filling even work? I can just imagine it all oozing out the edges. I know about making a dam around the edges before adding the filling but I'm worried about the weight for 6", 8" & 12" squares.

Would a firmer filling like a custard or buttercream based type work better? Also, the cake will be at a reception for a good number of hours prior to being cut so what do you do about fillings that need to be in the fridge? Is it ok to be left out for say 6+ hours?

Thanks so much for any help!
KimAZ

Well, anything that the major ingredient is milk, cream or egg yolks with the exception of ganache because it is heated cream and chocolate, should not be out of the refrigerator for very long, just shortly before serving and shortly afterwards.
Mousse would be one of those fillings as are puddings that should be refrigerated. Buttercream would be fine as would a lemon curd, ganache, jam added to buttercream, things like that. But that is too long a time for a mousse to be considered safe to consume and not only that, many puddings, mousses and whipped cream fillings will start to separate, get runny or start to absorb into the cake.
You could use a commercial sleeve bavarian filling or any of the commercial sleeve fillings that do not require refrigeration, many tinned pies fillings that are not over jellowy work well too.
Hugs Squirrelly

Hi Kim...

Have you used Pastry Pride??? You can buy it at Smart & Final and it works great for mousse type fillings. It's non-dairy so you don't have to worry about it going bad. You can also whip it up so it's a little firmer and it won't ooze. I mix cocoa into it for choc mousse, I've mixed jams and lemon curd. Yummmmy!!

Kim....wish you'd asked this yesterday! I took a tiered cake to an event tonite....used a mousse filling in two of the tiers...put dowels in before driving 1.5 hours with car heater on.........................when I began assembling the cake, the dowels were way too tall! The cakes with mousse filling had REALLY settled. Still tasted good......but had to remove and re-cut the dowels to assemble. Live and learn! I think I'll save the fluffy stuff for non-traveling cakes. I should have anticipated this....

Unfortunately some mousses even absorb back into a cake when the cake is filled well in advance and once a cake is out of the fridge, it is an even bigger problem. Two hours tops out fo the fridge is the maximum on these kinds of fillings. Also the food risks can become an issue after that time frame. The little puddings in the tins are no exception, they can only be kept at room temperature when the tin is still unopened acccording to the manufacturers.
Hugs Squirrelly

Will they hold up to being stacked with the mousse though??

when stacking a tiered cake - the cake is actually sitting on the dowels that support it - not on the cake below - there shouldn't be any weight issues if the supports are there -

Cakefairy18 I did a 3 tiered stacked anniversary cake and all layers contained a mousse filling. They were refrigerated up until delivery and held up just fine! And delicious! Good luck!

The dowels reinforce your cake as do the boards the cakes sit on and the stiff buttercream dam can handle the weight. Which is part of the reason you use a stiff, we are talking the minimal amount of liquid in the buttercream, dam. Your damn is 3/4 inch high and your mousse should be lower than that to avoid the squish factor.
Hugs Squirrelly

Wow, thank you Squirrely! I appreciate your help on this. All makes sense to me.

Bakers- Well geez, you're so right. I forgot about the dowels actually holding the weight of the cake above it. Duh! Thanks for your help.

And thank you too Tami. I'm off to Smart and Final!

KimAZ