AMy great niece wants a strawberry cake with fresh strawberries. Should I use buttercream frosting? Also, I assume I would dry the fruit before putting it on the cake?....help. Have to make it for 12/30.

Dry the fruit-- yes. Buttercream is good.

So I recently tested and tested and tested strawberry cakes.

This is the doctored mix I liked the best. 

1 box white cake mix

1 4 oz. box strawberry jello

1 cup chopped strawberries

1/2 cup oil

4 eggs

1/2 cup milk

The strawberries sink a little but dang this is great cake.

I don't know where I got this recipe or I'd give credit.

I tried strawberry box mix cake and I didn't like it.

AThanks.......that's helpful.

When you use fresh fruit, it can release some of it's moisture.  Strawberries are notorious for this. 

Wherever you are using fresh berries in the final construction, seal the cake from the excess moisture with buttercream or melted jam painted on the cake.

Also, if you are using fresh berries on the top, where they will be seen, the will keep a fresher appearance with a nice glaze.  You can use a thinned melted jam here as well.

I did a similar cake decorated on top and on all square sides. I used dream whip to ice the cake and used Jello's vanilla pie filling and pudding mix in the box to add stability to it. I put on all the strawberries and berries on one hour before pick-up. The strawberries are very moist and run onto the icing. All fruits had to go on several paper towels to soak up some moisture. I chose to freeze my cake iced 1st then place all the fruits on. Since I am in a tropical climate I got just the right amount of stickiness to adhere all the fruits on top and on the sides within a few minutes of pulling the cake out from the freezer. Boxed it and put it right back in the freezer till pick-up time.