Hi all!

I have been asked to do a cake for the 60th Bday of the mother of a friend of mine. She would like it to be 'delicious' and look beautiful.

Up until now I have only done fanciful or 3-D cakes, all just plain cake. Never have I attempted any kind of filling. How do I do this? I like to decorate on thursday/Friday for a Saturday pick-up however will a filling change this? Do I need to decorate the day of instead? I believe she wants some kind of fruit and stuff....is pie filling the same? I really don't know where to begin with this.

Any ideas, suggestions, tips, recipes or HELP, would be greatly appreciated!!!

Oh yes, I know this topic has been discussed on numerous occasions, however what is this 'matrix' that I have seen? I think I should take a boo at it as I know I am not charging anywhere near what I should/could be.

Thanks in Advance!

Tripletmom

You could use a lot of different things for fillings. If you have one of those large supply stores by you that carries the fillings in the plastic sleeves you wouldn't have to worry about refrigerating it. They are pretty good too. You could also use jams, sugarless ones are good. On another board they were talking about making fillings with a small pack of pudding mix, whatever flavor you want, and a pint of cream. I want to try that, sounds good.
As for how to fill, if you are doing a tiered cake just put it in between the tiers. You can run a dam of icing around the outside of the cake and put your filling inside it. I never do that, I just put the filling in aways from the edge and squirt icing in the gap with my icer tip when I go to frost it. Hope that makes sense.
I bet your plain cakes are delicious, people crack me up when they say I want it to taste really good. I always think," sorry I don't make them tasty, people just order them cuz they look good." Sorry for my ranting, in a goofy mood today

I actually use the icing that I am going to frost the cake with and add some whipping cream, whip until light and fluffy (like a whip cream) spread a thin layer and then add fresh fruit, then another thin layer(to cover fruit so that your cake is not soggy) over the fruit.

Good luck!

Thanks for the replies!

As I said I have never filled a cake so my biggest worry was that it was going to get soggy or the fruit would go funny. know what I mean?

I like the idea of the whipped frosting with fruit in between, I will have to try it out this weekend.

Thanks again!

You might also try mixing some of your icing with a fruit filling...this gives you a thicker filling that wouldn't be soggy or tend to squish out around the edges!

Now that sounds like something I could do!

Never would I have thought to do any of these things! Keep those suggestions coming!

This site is just so amazing! In the week that I have joined I have learned more than I had ever thought possible. Today I iced a cake with my icer tip as cali4dawn suggested. It was made to look like a dinosaur and I had a heck of time crumbcoating it. With the icer tip a crumb cot became a thing of the past!

Thanks so much to everyone!

If you remember to use the dam around the edge of your layer, your filling should stay put as long as it is no thicker than the dam. To do one, just use a 12 tip and pipe a border around the edge of your bottom layer. I like to put a chocolate cream filling in a yellow cake. An oreo cookie cream filling would be wonderful in either a chocolate or white cake. You can even use a pudding cup. What kind of cake are you making?

One cake is supposed to be chocolate for a MAJOR chocaholic and the other is for a child's 3rd birthday however it is really for the adults. I want to practice with fillings before I do this 60th birthday cake. I think for that one it will be a white cake. As I said my worst fear is sogginess...I know, I am probably just being paranoid.....

Wow someone else with my same ideas and thoughts .... scary I wish I could help but everything I was thinking came up somewhere in the replies to this, so I guess they were good ideas just not mine my suggestion is to take the other suggestions and run with it.... with their help I am sure you can make a spectacular cake!

For fillings, I have used my cake icings, mousse with sliced strawberries in it, pudding mixed with cool whip, plain pudding, jello mixed with cool whip, I have yet to come up with a soggy cake. How long are the cakes going to sit decorated before served? I think that may make a difference?

flayvurdfun: Thanks for the vote of confidence! I have always enjoyed cake decorating however it has literally only been in the last 3 weeks that things have suddednly gotten busy to almost hectic! And with 3, 21 month olds it gets a little insane sometimes too! Wouldn't trade it for anything though!

nashsmom: If it was a plain cake I would have it done on Thursday or Friday for a Saturday pick-up. With a filling I wasn't sure if I could do this. I am going to bite the bullet and try a mousse that I bought, just try to make it a little thicker. Fingers crossed......

To make your mousse a little stiffer, after you have made it, mix a little frosting in with it.

You could always crumb coat where the filling would touch the cake. I have never done this, has anyone else? WOW! 3 21 months old and you find time to decorate? You are amazing!

I can't imagine getting much of anything done--let alone something as skillful as cake decorating--with triplets to care for, so my hat's off to you too, tripletmom.

Thanks, but I am very blessed to have 3 very good little girls...plus 2 more step-children every other weekend (they are 13 + 9). Lots of people have 3 kids, it's just that mine happen to be the same age!

It was my mom that kinda got me into cake decorating. I did a cake for my sister-in-law and my mom said something like maybe one day I would make the wedding cakes for my girls...and I thought now that would be pretty cool! Plus, since I am a SAHM this is something that I can do that I enjoy!

tripletmom- I think it's so cool that you are able to stay home with your three little ones. I would be doing the same thing with my little one if it was in the budget. But I know that my situation can't be forever, my husband is now going for his BSBM, so he should have that done in about 2 1/2 years, and then no more working for me- except to do cakes