I am making a ten inch square french vanilla cake with strawberry filling in it for a wedding on saturday. I would like to make this cake today so I have less work to do tomorrow with the other cakes. If I make this cake, and put in strawberry filling from a sleeve, what I bought at my cake store, is this alright to do this early? Or will it soak up into the cake? Any help is appreciated!

It won't soak up the strawberry filling if you put a thin layer of buttercream down first. It acts as a barrier.

You don't need any type of buttercream barrier with the sleeved filling. The sleeved filling is meant to be used as a shelf stable product and also does not soak into the cake, unlike jams or preserves.

For a Saturday wedding, I normally fill and crumb coat on Thursday, ice and decorate on Friday, so you are totally fine with putting the filling in today. I do it all the time.

thanks a lot vdrsolo, I had a wedding cake last weekend and baked and iced and decorated on friday and that was to much work, this weekend I am trying to break it up into two days worth of work, but just wanted to make sure I was safe doing it this way ... it should be fine in the fridge until saturday then correct? thanks again

Unless your filling or icing is perishable, no need to refrigerate. I use a crusting buttercream so it seals the cake when I crumb coat on Thursday.

It is actually best to let your cake settle for several hours or overnight after filling. This way any potential bulges can be taken care of after the cake has settled.

I use the buttercream dream recipe which is off this site. It does have milk in it, but I have always understood that with the powdered sugar in the icing, the milk is non perishable. I could be wrong the. I almost always fridge my cakes just simply to get the out of my way on the counters plus, the buttercream dream never really crust's well for me unless its been in the fridge a long time. Thanks again for your help!

I use the buttercream dream recipe which is off this site. It does have milk in it, but I have always understood that with the powdered sugar in the icing, the milk is non perishable. I could be wrong the. I almost always fridge my cakes just simply to get the out of my way on the counters plus, the buttercream dream never really crust's well for me unless its been in the fridge a long time. So, it should still be ok in the fridge, even though it does not technically have to be in there? Thanks again!

I used to use milk but now use nondairy coffee creamer mixed with water, but when I used milk, it was fine for the period you are talking about.

As for the crusting, you can decrease your fat or up your powdered sugar, that will help the icing to crust better.