I have recently started doing some cake decorating and I find myself confused regarding when to refridgerate and when not....

I understand not to refridgerate a cake covered in fondant, but what do you do when the filling has fresh strawberries?

Is it always ok to refridgerate a cake that is covered in buttercream? If so, does it need to be pulled out in a specific amount of time prior to the event?

If there is anything I else about this topic that I may not have mentioned please feel free to comment! Thank you so much!

I also have been wounding about this. When I started out making cakes about 9 months ago I put EVERYONE of them in the fridge and never had a problem with them, I even put fondant cakes in the fridge. Now I don't put any of my cakes in the fridge because I was told not to, but I worry because of the fact that my icing has milk and many different things that you would not dream of eating it they were left out. Please someone help me, and crystalgarner1!!!

I don't cover many cakes in fondant, so I can't really help you there.

If your powdered sugar buttercream icing contains butter, milk, dream whip, etc. it will be fine w/o refrigeration. The sugar makes it shelf stable.

If I have room in the fridge, I do refrigerate tiered bc cakes only because they seem to travel better. In this case, I do not pull them out any certain amount of time before the event. It won't take them long to reach room temp, especially once they are plated.

Buttercream has enough sugar in it to keep the milk from spoiling.

I would refrigerate fresh fruit, fillings like custard or mousse, cream cheese frosting unless it's specifically formulated to be shelf-stable, pudding fillings (even the little pudding cups).

A cake with buttercream doesn't need refrigerated, and neither does one with jam as a filling.

You can refrigerate a fondant-covered cake if you need to though. I refrigerate or even freeze them and they always look fine once they've thawed, no color running or anything like that.