Hello everyone. I have a fondant cake due next week and my customer wants one of the tiers to be white cake with vanilla cream and fresh strawberries filling. I need a recipe of a good vanilla cream but most important, one that will last long. The cake is for Sunday afternoon but she wants the cake Saturday at noon so the cake will be sitting out a long time. I really dont want to put it in the fridge because of the fondant but I am worried about the fresh strawberries. Can I please get some ideas from you bakers out there? Please please. Thank you
AI never had fresh fruit filling sit outside the fridge for a day, so I can't tell you if I'll be fine. Guess it also depends on the room temperature. If it's winter and she hasn't got central heating in that room it might be fine. But why taking the risk. You can keep a cake in the fridge even if it's covered in fondant.
A pastry cream and/or fresh strawberry filling MUST be refrigerated up until serving.
She can refrigerate the cake. It needs to be placed in a cardboard box. It should stay in the box until it comes back to room temp. That way, the condensation goes to the box and not onto the fondant.
If she can't, or won't, refrigerate it then she has t choose a different filling--for your protection and her safety.
Yes, what rosa^^^ said.
Being the professional you must educate the customers.
In this case it would be best (if the customer does not want to or can't refrigerate the cake until serving) to use b'cream icing with strawberry jam or the sleeved filling.
just becasue the customer wants it, doesn't mean she gets it. You as the professional dictate food safety rules. You're the one who has to already know how sliced strawberries react sitting in a layer of bc in the middle of a cake, sitting out of the fridge all day.
I used to get requests like that. I said no. "What works for a small birthday cake at home, won't always work for a tiered wedding cake that's served to guests. You might be OK taking some chances with your family's food. I'm not comfortable taking any risks with food for the public." After that little speech, I never, ever got any pushback.
Thank you all for your quick response. I will tell her I will do a soft buttercream with strawberry jam and make her understand that that wont work. Do you think a 6" and 10" will serve 30 people? She wants two tier cake but I'm thinking of making a 8" and 12" because I'm afraid they're not going to know how to cut the cake so it serves 30.
A 10" and a 6" will give her 40 party servings. If she needs 30, an 8" and a 6" will give her 32.
She pays $Y per serving, so either it's either Yx40 or Yx32. She wants bigger slices, she buys a bigger cake.
Give her a cutting guide to get the number of servings the cake should provide and if she cuts it improperly, that's her problem.
One of your responsibilities as a professional is to provide a cutting chart. Improper cutting is not your problem. And you do NOT give away free cake becasue "they may not know how to cut the cake."
You may need to sit down and create charts for your cakes. I did this once and used the charts for the decade + I was in busienss. Here's the idea.
http://www.midnightmadnesscakery.com/serving-chart--cutting-guide.html
even with round cakes, you always make straight cuts.
Thanks again. My customer is on vacation and wont be back until saturday morning so I can't talk to her before. I've decided to go with the 6" and 10" and I am not going to use raw strawberries like she wanted. I'm going to use Edna's recipe, cooking strawberries with sugar. Which cream filling (besides BC) is best to use with cooked strawberries in syrup and that can sit outside over a day? I need a good recipe please. Thank you in advance.
Maybe I can make a vanilla pudding box mix with cooked strawberries in syrup. How does that sound?
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