How far in advance do you fill a cake with fresh fruit w/o it getting mushy? I'm thinking strawberries...

I have not done fresh fruit yet, but the cakes I"m doing for next week they want strawberry filling too. I figured I would put a thin layer of frosting on the cake then put the boarder of frosting around it and spoon the filling into the well with the frosting on the bottom to help keep it from soaking into the cake. not sure how I'm going to keep it from soaking into the top layer though. Hopefully someone else has more experience with this issue and can share

I've used fresh strawberries and bananas in a couple cakes recently. I cut them up into small pieces, and did the bananas right before I filled the cake. I put a layer of buttecream, the fruit, then covered them with a little more buttercream then spread it into the fruit so that it's all mixed together. Hopefully that makes sense.

I've also used Bavarian creme and mixed in the fruit.

SheilaF, I've used fruit filling before without buttercream. I'd be afraid the layers would be too slippery w/ BC and filling? Let me know how you do.

ooo MaryAnn - Bavarian cream mixed w/ fruit sounds yummy! Do the bananas turn brown?

Nati - sounds great! Ii'm not the quickest decorator around, so I like to do things the day before. That's what I was afraid of - the berries turning mushy or giving off too much liquid. BTW - I was just looking at Christening cakes in the gallery and yours is gorgeous!! How do you get the blanket impressions? did you freehand the scrolls on the side? Beautiful cake!!!