I've received a request for a decorated cake with real, sliced strawberries in between the cake layers. I have a coworker who loves to cook new things and one day she brought in a cake with the strawberries slices in between two chocolate cake layers. One of my other coworkers loved the taste of fresh strawberries inside the cake and knew that I decorate cakes so she asked if I was able to do the same thing. I figured that the lady who brought in the cake to the office had just layered them in the middle but the top layer slid off the bottom layer by the middle of the day. I want to know if it is possible to do the same thing but prevent the strawberries from making the cake like mush inside and prevent the cake from shifting in the first place? I plan on testing some ideas but I wanted to know if you all had some tried and true techniques? Any help would be appreciated like usual. I never commited to doing the cake for the coworker because I didn't have time to practice and I didn't want to give her a disaster so there is no deadline for new solutions. Thank you so much.

AMY

Fresh strawberries are always slidey because they weep so much once they are cut. I have had some success in sandwiching the fresh strawberries between layers of mousse filling. No matter what it is a messy cake to cut and certainly if the cake is out of the fridge for a few hours it will be slippery. Some other things to try would be to tort the two layer cakes and just put sliced strawberries in one layer (weeping is absorbed directly by the cake) and filling between the other layers so the layers are as follows-cake, strawberries, cake, filling, cake,strawberries, cake; spread a thin layer of strawberry preserves between the layers with the fresh strawberries in the middle. HTH.

most of my cakes are with fresh strawberries and i never had a cake slide.. i use a buttercream gasket, thin layer of buttercream on the bottom. I do not use a gel with my strawberries.. i simply cut them thicker and layer them in my cake. I then put a thin layer of buttercream on top of the strawberries.. this keeps the cake from sliding coz the buttercream sticks to the top cake... hope this helps

I have used fresh strawberries alot-especially with chocolate cake-I mix a little bit of strawberry glaze with the strawberries to keep them from drying out but I too use the buttercream gasket idea beneath them and also a bit on the bottom of the top layer. You can also make a dam-outling the inside edges of your layer the strawberries are going on to keep the juices from running out the sides...just an idea-I am sure there are several more out there for you to try.

I make my own strawberry filling with strawberry preserves and whipped cream.. to taste. I use this a lot for cakes.. one of the most popular fillings, then I put a layer of fresh strawberry slices on top of that. I have never had a cake slide.