Here's my plan, let me know if you think it will work! Thanks!

I'm planning on using a juicer and a mesh strainer to get some pure strawberry juice to use in place of milk/water in my buttercream. My hope is that this will give the buttercream a strawberry flavor as well as a pink tint without chunks of strawberries or seeds showing.

I'm also planning to put fresh strawberry slices in the middle of the cake. To help combate the moisture issue, I plan to put a thin coat of buttercream above and below the strawberries along with a good dam.

How do you guys think this will work?

Thanks,
Jamie

If you want a strawberry flavor with no seeds, Im sure they have strawberry extract and I have used strawberry Torani in my buttercream before. It was good, I added it, not replaced anything with it, and it made the buttercream pink

I make a really good strawberry icing with strawberry jello.

Use about 1/2 package of dry strawberry jello and add approx. one tablespoon boiling water to it. Stir until well dissolved. Add this to buttercream icing. It has a great flavor and will color the icing pink. You can control how pink you want it, by adding more or less icing to it.

As far as adding fresh strawberries, I never do that because I don't care for fresh fruit in the cakes. Plus it would have to be kept refrigerated and that can play all kinds of tricks with the icing. (wrinkling & cracking, etc.)

You can do this with any flavor of jello, and also sugar free jello.

Thanks for the help!

I'm not really looking to use Jell-o, would regular use fruit. And the refrigeration isn't an issue, I'll be using a crusting buttercream. I always refrigerate this and don't have any issues.

As for extract and syrup, I'm on Maui and the supply here is rather limited. If I had more time I'd try to find these, but the cake is for Saturday.

I guess what I'm really asking is will this idea work? I know that some of you use strawberry/raspberry puree to make strawberry/raspberry buttercream.....I'm sort of looking to do the same thing but using only the juice.

As far as the strawberry slices inside, will my idea of coating both cakes in buttercream and making a good dam work?

Thanks, Jamie

I don't see why the frosting idea wouldn't work, although I've never tried it.

As for the fresh strawberries inside the cake, I have done that, exactly as you said you were going to. I refrigerated it overnight and nothing seemed to be leaking out. Unfortunately, it was a cake for someone else, so I never got to hear how it was or see it when it was cut. I would think it was fine, though.

I've done fresh fruit inside cakes and never had a problem...just make sure that you fill the cake as late as possible. There's nothing worse than cutting into a cake and getting mushy or browned strawberries.

I usually use a bit of strawberry preserves under the layer of strawberries to give it an extra punch. It also helps with moisture as it tends not to soak in so badly as the fruit alone... I suppose that's the gelatin working.

As for fruit puree in the b.c... I'm not sure, but it sounds like it could replace water. If you need it right away and don't have time to test it, you might just go with filling the layers w/ strawberry and do a plain icing.

I put fresh strawberries in my cakes all the time - people go nuts! I think your idea of 'sealing' the top and bottom layers with BC is a good one, otherwise the bottom cake will get soggy.
I have not tried to add strawberry juice to the BC, but I would try it and see...my only though is that it might not be strong enough flavor, but with strawberries in the middle, you get enough strawberry taste to bring out the flavor of the icing also.

Good luck!

I put fresh strawberries in cakes all the time too (cassata cakes= fresh strawberries and bavarian creme filling..yum).......and I do like you said I "butter" the layer of cake above and below the strawberries. I also macerate my berries ahead of time. Sprinkle a couple spoonfuls of sugar (depending on how ripe the berries are) and let them sit in the fridge for 20 min. or so as I torte the layers and prepare my boards. Then I pull them out and drain them. I don't pat them dry or anything and people go absolutely CRAZY for the cakes with the fresh strawberries in them. I do make my dam a little wider than normal just in case, don't want any red/pink juice oozin down the side of the cake!

I sometimes use pureed berries in my bc, and the color and taste is quite good. I don't see why straining out the pulp and seeds wouldn't work - just use a very fine mesh to catch those tiny little buggers.

Mmmmm, fresh chopped strawberries mixed into SMBC as a filling in a buttermilk pound cake....it's heaven! Oneof my most popular cake flavors. And I have never had problems with leaking or wrinkling or anything. Now, laying fresh strawberries on top of an iced cake? Oh....that's a sight to see! Here! http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wGr8njEWjtI/ScKkk5wN50I/AAAAAAAACP4/Gsl35X_XreE/s1600-h/Manny+%26+Jennifer+S+-+linked+-+bleeding+cake.jpg

((shudder)) The horror!

The fresh fruit flavor is beyond compare. You can seal the bottom and top layers from extra juices by melting some preserves or jam and painting the layers. It seals like buttercream, but it is not as thick and adds to the fruit flavor. Also, you can toss fresh fruit with doctored(lemon juice, vanilla, etc) jams to create a quick/delicious filling.

If you don't want to go through the trouble and expense of making your own strawberry juice, I'm fairly certain you can purchase strawberry "nectar" at the grocery store.

One of the things I love about IMBC is that you can replace half the sugar in the syrup with an equal amount of any fruit jam or jelly (reduce the water by about 1/3 to compensate for the liquid in the jam/jelly) to create a fruited syrup which will then result in a fruited BC! I've even made a guava-passion fruit IMBC by replacing 1/2 the sugar with guava jelly and the water with passion fruit juice. Used on a white ginger cake that had mango filling. Oh, god was that a good cake!