I have been thinking about cake flavors lately and trying different flavors.

So far I love the black forest style cakes (chocolate fudge cake with cherry filling). I think I like it because the cherry filling isn't so sweet and there is a little tartness to it so that balances out the sweetness of the chocolate cake.

I usually torte my cakes and fill them with buttercream (so there are three layers of filling and four layers of cake) I love the look of it when it's cut but when I taste a slice I can only eat a bite or two because it tastes like sweet on top of sweet with no balance. (I am a sweet and salty in one dish kind of girl like pancake and eggs and bacon with lots of syrup) Everyone says my cakes are delicious but I don't know if there just trying to be polite.

I did make a filling from dream whip with raspberry preserve mixed in and french vanilla WASC cake and it was better but not quite what I was looking for.

So my question is what is your rule of thumb when selecting cakes and fillings?

You can also use Pastry Pride non dairy whipped topping in your filling because it's not too sweet. You can flavor it with anything, extracts, coffee creamer, fruit, puddings, etc. I whip some up with roughly chopped strawberries or peaches or whatever fruit and its makes sort of a mousse. Add coconut and crushed pineapple to it and you have a pina colada filling. The possibilities are endless!
My most popular filling is banana caramel. That's just a layer of PP flavored with caramel cinnamon coffee creamer, fresh sliced bananas, and Smuckers caramel ice cream topping squirted on top. It's really yummy, especially with chocolate cake!
And it doesnt have to be refrigerated since it's non dairy. Good luck!

........use Pastry Pride non dairy whipped topping in your filling because it's not too sweet. ......

Taste is very personal. *I think* PP is sweeter than b'cream
I love using Bavarian Creme (sleeved filling) in many different cakes - choco; butter pecan; lemon; strawverry; or spice.
There is a wonderful - *VERY long* post about MacsMom's cakes and fillings. There are soooooo many suggestions - recipes for both cakes and fillings. Do a Google search for 'Macsmon recipe on Cake Central'.
There was over 350 pages of cc members going crazy with excitement and praise to Macsmom for her generousity

Here I found the link: http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-614554-gourmet.html