How do I use fresh strawberries as a filling with out the juice leaking through the icing? I tried to do this and it looked like my cake was hemmoraging.

TIA

When I layer fresh strawberries in my cakes, I use strawberries that are firm and not too ripe (use the ripe ones for the actually filling or cake). Slice them up to about 1/4" thick (so they won't get soggy from the filling) and lay them on a single layer over a paper towel to absorb any juice. On the cake, spread a layer a frosting, top with the sliced strawberries then spread another layer of frosting over it. Have a really good dam too. HTH.

I also dab them, post slicing, with paper towel to soak some juice up and sandwhich them between some frosting to avoid leaking into my cake (especially if it isn't chocolate). I could never properly spread icing over the berries without squishing them, though, so i pipe icing on top of the berries.

hth

ahhhh, that makes sense. Before I had my dam but I was laying the strawberries straight onto the cake and I now know where I went wrong. AngelFood4, I love your blog. I've been following you for while. You're awesome. SugarDugar, thanks. I can't see being able to properly spread the icing with a knife so I'm glad you mentioned a piping bag. I'll most likely be doing that

Thanks again!