I have a customer who wishes to have a stacked cake filled with pastry cream and fresh strawberries and blueberries. My question is how do you go about layering this and how long can fresh berries be inside the cake until they go soggy or start oozing juice. I plan on making a vanilla cake and covering it with b/c and then fondant. Anyone have experience with this type of cake and if so, how to I go about assembling it and how many days do I have to do this?[/b]

I probably am not giong to be much help, because I simply would have refused the order. I don't make cakes that use fresh fruit because it does get oozy pretty quick. The layers can start to slide apart. I don't make cakes with "real" pastry cream because it has to be refrigerated and I don't know if the customer is going to treat it in a food safe manner. I don't make cakes that have to be refrigerated, period.

Since you are the cake expert, YOU have to dictate what's in, or not in the cake.

Agree with Leah, maybe give them the option of the sleeved fruit fillings..........they don't need refrigeration at all.

Just let your customer know of all the things that can go wrong with that combination, and make sure you make a contract and have her sign it, because if not shes going to come back demanding a refund. I bet she will change her mind and go a different route with her flavors.

Good luck and keep us posted

I don't sell cakes but I have made cakes with pastry cream and fruit filling. As the previous posters have said, they definitely need to be refrigerated and I wouldn't keep one more than a couple of days, even with refrigeration. To prevent sogginess and ooziness I put a thin layer of buttercream on both sides of my layers and dam of really really stiff buttercream around the outer perimeter of the cake and a circle in the center. I used tip 12 on the dam and made it twice as high as usual by piping one line and then another tight on top of it (stacked I guess?). Then I put in the pastry cream the fruit on top of that and put on the top layer. Next is leah_s' trick of a ceramic tile (well, I use a skillet) on top of the cake (in the fridge) for it to settle for a couple of hours (thanks leah_s!). One is the cake in my avatar and as you can see, no bulges or oozing but again, it was for personal use so I had complete control over the refrigeration. BUT...all that being said, even though they taste awesome, they don't cut pretty, at least not for me. Oh, and in my dry climate I don't have any trouble refrigerating fondant covered cakes.