How Do I Keep The Strawberries From Leaking?
Decorating By potatocakes Updated 15 Jul 2006 , 4:17am by butterflyjuju
I made a cake last weekend for my nephew's birthday party and it tasted great. The only problem was that I sliced fresh strawberries and put in between the cake layers. When I got the cake to put in the car to drive to the party, there was a ring of strawberry juice around the bottom of the cake where it was leaking, I guess, from the sides and bottom. I made the WBH Golden Butter Cake (always a hit with the family), put regular crusting buttercream on top of the bottom layer, put several sliced strawberries on top of that, then put the second cake layer, iced and decorated. I didn't refrigerate as it only had to sit out for a few hours before we left and nothing was perishable. I thought the whole cake would be soggy when we cut it, but you couldn't even tell where it was coming from, except a couple of small places in the side of the cake, and I guess from the bottom, maybe, where the juice ran between the cake and the icing? It was somewhat of a mystery. Anyway, I love this flavor combination and would like to make it again. But what can I do next time to ensure it doesn't run like that and make a big mess? Thanks for your help!!!
It isn't a mystery really it the natural of science.Strawberries when mixed with moisture begin to give off natural sugar and juices...along with many other fruits.This is why the sweating.Unfortunately I don't know how it can be eliminated.This is part of the reason I don't like to use fresh fruit inside of a cake or one top for that reason.They are very tempermental!! Hopefully a more seasoned member here may be able to offer you a solution that I haven't been able to figure out yet!!
I'm anxious also to find a remedy for leaking strawberries. I once made a grooms cake with strawberries on top. It was a pretty cake but before I left my house, the juice was already running down. That was the worst experience I have ever had with a cake, not the mention the wedding cake for the same wedding. Thankfully the florist was at the reception site and place greenery around the cake so it wouldn't be noticable.
I meant the mystery was how the juice got to the outside perimeter of the cake without sogging the cake or leaving noticeable "run" marks on the icing. That's what I couldn't figure out (along with how to not have it do that again!). 
Hopefully someone has a brilliant idea that I've just not thought of yet!
Just a thought but did you pipe a dam around the perimeter of the layer that you filled? I have had leakage when I have overfilled with the fruit and it went over the dam and leaked out the sides. Also, did you mix the strawberries with anything?: I always use a whipping cream or Cool Whip thinned with a tiny bit of milk and then fold in my chopped strawberries and don't have any problems. HTH!
I recently had a wonderful strawberry filled cake made by a lady who's been baking and decorating for 30 years. It was a yellow pound cake, torted and filled with fresh cut strawberries that she mixed with a strawberry dessert glaze. She used a lot less of the glaze than eateries do--refer to Denny's or Baker's Square strawberry pies 
--just enough to cover the strawberries, but not "suspend them in animation". I had a piece of the cake on day 1 and on day 2--after refrigeration and there was no leakage at all. The glaze wasn't sweet--all you could taste was the berries--which still had that fresh "crunch" rather than a soggy texture.
I, too, have stayed away from strawberries because of the leakage, bleeding, and breakdown, but I'd use them this way, anytime. I thought the glaze always had to be super thick and super sweet, but I see that just a little covering on the berries doesn't affect the taste and greatly improves the quality of the product if it can't be eaten the very second that it's completed.
Rae
I did a cake with strawberries mixed with strawberry cool whip. Didn't have any problems with it.
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