I am working on the first order I have had that allows me to use a filling other than buttercream.  It is a strawberry cake and I used the filling recipe found on allrecipes.com (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Strawberry-Cake-Filling/Detail.aspx).  I made the filling last night and had it in the fridge overnight.  I made a dam that was quite thick but apparently not thick enough because when the cake settled while the crumb coat was crusting it began to bulge and when I smoothed it out I noticed some of the filling leaking out.  What can I do to make sure it stays put from here until they serve it?  Does it need to be in the fridge every moment I'm not working with it?  The filling is pretty soft so I am worried that without any buttercream to support the layers it will continue to squish.  How thick of a dam do most people use so I can prevent this in the future?  Thanks!

Keep it in the fridge and it should hold up ok.  It doesn't matter how big the dam is, just don't pipe it up against the edge of the cake.  I pipe it 1/2 inch in from the edge.  If I have a stiff filling I will overfill, but if it's thin or slippery I won't. 

Thanks!  I did pipe it right up to the edge.  I was able to take the top layer off and fix it a bit but I am now keeping it in the fridge unless I'm working on it.