Hello helpful CCers!

I'm making a friend's birthday cake and I know she really wants my strawberry filling. I use strawberry preserves mixed with buttercream. I'm wondering if this needs to be refrigerated. Usually, I say "if in doubt, refrigerate" but in this case, I'll be covering the cake in fondant, which can't be refrigerated.

I've heard that the amount of sugar mixed in this type of filling acts as a preservative. I've also heard that we only refrigerate fruit preserves after opening to prolong freshness (not like milk where it will sour very quickly). If these things are true, this cake should be okay covered in fondant and sitting out for less than 24 hours. What do you think?

Thanks in advance for your help!

I use preserves (not mixed with buttercream) all the time in my cakes and have not had any issues leaving it out of the fridge.

I also use preserves mixed with my buttercream as filling occasionally and I never refrigerate my cakes. The preserves require no refrigeration and neither does the buttercream.

Thanks...I was just checking. I know the buttercream doesn't require refrigeration, but my preserves says "refrigerate after opening" so I wanted to be 100% sure!

How long can this be left out? I am planning on starting the cake today and letting it sit out until saturday afternoon.