FRESH STRAWBERRIES!!!

I wouldn't be afraid of it spoiling as much as the strawberries running and causing a blowout....Would LOVE to know how you do this...... I'm so afraid of fresh fruit !

I'm so glad you asked that question. I've hesitated to use fresh fruit in filling before because of just that concern. Just don't know time frame for using fresh fruit.

The food handling course I took said that items that require refrigeration such as whipping cream, cool whip etc are good for 4 hrs at room temp. With strawberries, I would be seriousely worried. They can go bad so quickly especially once cut. I would cut a few and sit them on the counter overnight and see how they do. I would assume they're going to mold or break down pretty heavily.

I've never seen a fridge too small to hold A cake.

Strawberries can mold overnight.

I'd make room in the refrigerator or buy a larger one.

I made a couple of cakes with fresh strawberrys And left them out for as long as two days And when they were cut, The strawberry were fine. The strawberrys juice did soup in the cake a little but the berrys were fine

Hi, do you have a freezer? I just made a cake this week end for my grandson b/d. I used greylakes gelatin can use knox) in the strawberries( i sliced them, put sugar on them and set in fridge overnite). I then took out what i needed(strawberries only, no juice) , put on stove and brought to a boil, then added gelatine mixture to the strawberries. I then let them cool good. I made a stablized whipcream frosting and added the strawberries( recipes all over the internet for this) I torted the layers and layered them with the whipcream and strawberries and put in freezer(in a box covered with heavy foil). took out the next morning and iced with stabilized whipcream It was delicious when came to room temp. All at the party raved about it. Again, if you have a freezer, it will do great in it. hth I also pureed about 2 cups of frest strawberries with the juice, to put over the slices also.

" I'd make room in the refrigerator or buy a larger one."

I will assume that you have a commercial kitchen, and LOTS of money Not many of us can just pop out and buy an extra refrigerator because of one cake order.....

Rather than take the chance, take out some shelves if you have to and put other food items in a cooler packed with ice, but I'd keep that cake in the refrigerator. Fresh strawberries have a nasty habit of 'bleeding' through just about anything... and I don't care how thick your dam is. I speak from experience. And the warmer they are, the faster they deteriorate...especially if there's sugar anywhere near them. Plus there's just something about strawberries that have sat out for a long time...they may taste OK, but they don't taste as fresh.
IMO!

I have used fresh strawberries in tiered cakes with not problems but you do need to make sure you slice your berries and remove as much juice as possible on sheets of paper towels making sure to place paper towels on top of the berries and gently pressing down. You should always refrigerate cakes with fresh fruits since the fruit will weep and make your filling runny. I don't know about you but I prefer a chilled strawberry filling anyways. Before decorating a cake with a refrigerated filling I always measure my fridge to make sure the board will fit. I remove shelves if I have to. So far the only boards I have had to trim are sheet cakes. I used a vanilla mousse with fresh strawberries for my brothers wedding and he loved it. It was 105 degrees that day and the wedding was outdoors, reception was inside. The only problem I had was my mother delivered the cake to the reception hall so I could get ready and she left the cake in the car for 5 to 10 minutes and the butter cream started to bubble. I was so mad when I saw the cake and had to do damage repair. I stared at that cake through the entire reception looking for more bubbles. The party went on so long that I left before the cake was served I couldn't stare at the cake any longer. I definetely won't let her deliver a cake for me in the near future. The filling was fine no blow outs just the butter cream had a slight bubble issue which I was able to repair.

I looked up food safety and found numerous sites that said they must be refrigerated.

This particular site stated a two hour limit after cutting, then discard. It was unanimous that refrigeration was a must.

http://www.foodsafety.wisc.edu/assets/pdf_files/safe_handling_strawberries.pdf

Non-dairy cream still must be refrigerated. What someone does in their home is their business, but to avoid liability, standard food safety practices will go a long way to avoiding a bad situation with a cake that has been sold.

Please make sure that an official site is used when researching food safety, not just opinions on a forum.