I'm making a cake for a friends son Bday party. 3 tiers. Anyway they said Chocolate cake with strawberry filling. On one of the layers I would love to have more grown up pallet, and do a layer of choc buttercream, and then place fresh sliced strawberries on it, between the cake layers.

So my question is this, how long will the berries stay fresh? does the cake need to be refrigerated? Because Its fondant on the outside and it doesn't refrigerate well from what I understand.

I'm not sure about fresh strawberries IN a cake but when I make my cheesecake filled chocolate covered strawberries they must be consumed within 48 hours. I always refrigerate them due to the cheesecake so I'm not sure about leaving regular strawberries out.

The only thing that went wrong when I did this was not to dry the strawberries extremely well. Strawberries hold a lot of moisture and the berries bled on mine. As far as strawberries IN the filling, I've done that and not refrigerated it for about 6 hours with success.

thanks. Im on the fence about this one then. I want to decorate the cake Sat night, party is noon on Sunday. Im baking the cakes as we speak.

I have never refrigerated a fondant covered cake but, somewhere on CC there is a thread that talks about the pros and cons of doing just that.
The just of the tread was the fondant will sweat when taken out of the refigeraor to room air. There are decorators that refigerate fondant covered cakes all the time. Those that refrigerate said you do not touch the fondant and let the moisture dry on its own and everything is OK.
If you are going to use fresh strawberries I would refrigerate.

Sorry so long, Serena

I feel like I am missing something. Why would strawberried need refridgeration? They are not refridgerated when you buy them.

I can tell you I put fresh strawberries in filling all tghe time. I do slice them then pat with paper towl to dry some. When I do BC only, I have refridgerated over night, but I have also done fondant covered and left room temp over night with no problems. HTH

I used fresh strawberries in my brothers wedding cake. You can make the cake the day before but it needs to be refrigerated or the berries will turn mushy. I put a layer of vanilla mousse made out of whipping cream and instant vanilla pudding and then a layer of fresh sliced berries on top. You need to slice the berries and lay them on paper towels. Cover the top a and gently press removing as much juice as possible. I didn't have any problems.

I used the mandoline to slice my berries and I think I sliced them to thin cause they were a tad mushy. live and learn cake was still awesome and tastey

I use fresh strawberries in my fillings all the time.
Do not wash the strawberries by running water over them. Gently pat them with a damp paper towel. Like a lot of fruit, once they are washed they ripen faster.
I do not slice the strawberries. I cut them into small chunks. I cut the strawberry in quaters and then cut each quater into 3 or 4 pieces.
I always put my cakes in the refrigerator - buttercream or fondant. I use Fondarific brand to cover my cakes and have never had a problem.

[quote="sweettreat101"] I put a layer of vanilla mousse made out of whipping cream and instant vanilla pudding quote]

I'm sorry, I don't have enough knowledge to help with this, but I do have a question about this vanilla mousse. Are these the only two ingredients? You just whip them together? Will you please share amounts? This seems like a very easy way to make mousse. I'm very intimidated by some recipes. Thanx!

[quote="angelwings1"]

A quick mousse recipe like this is to just make the pudding like normal, whip the whipping cream to stiff peak, and then fold together. I have a good vanilla bean cheesecake mousse in the recipes section.

[quote="Jayde"]

Holy Cow! YUMMM!!! Thanx for sharing!!

The mousse is made out of one pint whipping cream and one small box instant pudding I use vanilla, white chocolate, chocolate fudge, banana cream or cheesecake flavors. Don't really care for the French vanilla. Whip until peaks form. This filling stays stable for up to a week. As for the strawberries I always rinse my berries under cold water just before I need to slice them. Strawberries contain bacteria so I would not use them with rinsing. Slice them and lay them on paper towels top and bottom removing as much juice as possible. Try to use as close to the date as possible so that they don't get mushy. I make the cake the night before or the morning of the event and make sure to keep in the fridge until you have to deliver. I made cupcakes for work the other day with the mousse and they sat out for 8 hours and were still fine by the end of the day. I wouldn't leave them at outdoor events for longer than a couple hours if it's hot and make sure the cake is fully chilled.

No I don't make the pudding as normal and fold in the whip cream. Place your whipping cream in a bowl sprinkle pudding over cream and let it sit for a minute then whip it up. The only two ingredients are whipping cream and pudding mix. If you add the milk, pudding and whipping cream it will not be stable.