My most popular cake is a Butter Pecan Banana filled cake with cream cheese icing. I fill the middle with a thin layer of icing with freshly sliced bananas. After icing and chilling, I get it out to put the fondant on, and no matter how chilled or even close to frozen it is, it always ends up bulging out of the side of the cake. By the time I got it to the last baby shower I did, I had 2 bananas shoot out of the side of the cake through the fondant!! It just messes it all up. Any suggestions on how to fix this would be much appreciated!!!

Have you tried putting a dam of thick bc around the edge to keep the filling from mashing out? Your cake sounds really tasty

I was going to suggest the same thing - a good thick bc dam. That should take care of the problem.

Well I've got another order to fill on Wednesday, so I thought about trying that!! I'm still learning a lot, as you can tell. But both of your replies confirm my thoughts about that. I think that will work well that way! And just another quick question...I'm always a little leary when using fresh fruit. Do you think freezing the cake is necessary to keep the banana's fresh, or just refridgeration. I've been making them the day before and refridgerating them, but I didn't know if this was keeping the banana's fresh enough. Any thoughts??

Definately the bc dam, and do you use one layer of bananas or are they on top of each other? Sliced bananas are soooo slippery, I think that if they are on top of each other they make the layer more unstable. Good luck

No, just one layer of bananas. I figured that out the first time...thank goodness it was before I stacked the layers! They are quite slippery!

I don't know about bananas.... I always worry about them turning that funky color. Not sure if they would inside a cake sealed off from the air... never tried them. My 4 yr old has requested bananas in her cake for this weekend.

Kelli: They have seemed to be just fine in taste and color the way I've been doing them, by just making them the night before the event. They really are quite yummy in the cake I do. You should try it this weekend for your 4 year old! My kids love it

This is what I have done many times when using fresh bananas....I slice my bananas thin and only put 1 layer...not on top of each other. I also dont place them too close to the edge because they can slide/ooze out/or bulge. Using a dam would be helpful too.

I have switched over to SMBC from my traditional BC and do not use a dam....one day I was a bit lazy and did not use a dam....and to my surprise no bulge/oozing or anything. Have been doing this ever since And I use fruit fillings (pre made) all the time. I also chill my cakes in between decorating that seems to help with the filling and all. Hope this helps

I was going to suggest the dam too. I love the way everyone is so helpful around here!

MomMiller: I think the same thing! Thank you everyone for such great posts and helping me out! Hopefully this will make my cake a success tomorrow! And it's nice to know I have so many helpful people around for the future because I have soooooo much to learn!

Normita: Thank you for the SMBC tip. I have never made it, but will definately be trying that out for my next cake! Is there a certain recipe that you recommend??

I popped on here as I just saw a similar question about bulging being asked on the Home Page at the same time. I guess I will need to learn about this if I ever do cakes and not just cookies. Here is a link to info on the cake dam idea, if you want it:

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopicp-6795858.html#6795858