Ok so I have to do huge cake for an outdoor event in the middle of the park in las Vegas heat! I am pretty sure there will be a covered area where the cake will sit but it's entirely outdoors for a 5 hour event. So I told them the cake can not sit outside the whole time and would need to be delivered for dessert time but I am trying to think of filling ideas for the cakes besides plain shortening buttercream. The cakes will be covered in fondant as well to keep them more stable but I would love some ideas for fillings that will hold up ok.

Also..was thinking of macs mom's truffle fillings but don't know how stable they are for outside..

Thanks in advance!

I haven't seen the recipe for the truffle fillings (I'll be looking them up as soon as I send this off!), but what I use a lot as a filling is ganache. You can add things to it like Nutella or peanut butter for variety. I guess, since it's inside the cake, it doesn't melt like it would if the cake were covered with it. Anyway, it's worked very well for me here in hot, humid Cancún, even for outdoor cakes!

Great thank you! Also, when you add nutella, are you adding it to white or dark chocolate ganache?

Sorry, I forgot to say that I always make my ganache for filling from dark chocolate, but either peanut butter or Nutella added to white chocolate ganache sounds pretty appetizing, too.

Thank you so much! I will give it a try! Any advice on how much to add or you just do it to taste? Do I need to cut down on any of the other ingredients?

The basic recipe for dark or milk chocolate ganache is 2 parts chocolate to 1 part 35%-butterfat cream (if the cream doesn't have that much butterfat, you can add a little butter to it). These portions are by weight, not volume. So for 1 pound of chocolate you would use 1/2 pound of cream. For white chocolate, it's 3 parts chocolate to 1 part cream. You grate or chop the chocolate, then melt it in a double boiler or in 20-second bursts in the microwave. Heat the cream in a saucepan on the stove. You can add some vanilla or almond extract to the cream, if you like. When the cream gets bubbly, add it to the chocolate and stir until it's well mixed. Some people like to whip it, but I don't see much difference in the stuff I've stirred and the stuff I've whipped. Let it set up for a few hours or overnight (not in the fridge!) until it has the consistency of peanut butter. It's at this point that I add the Nutella or peanut butter, if I'm going to. I generally just eyeball these last two things (and taste as I go, of course!). Ganache makes a great crumbcoat for under fondant, too (though maybe not for extremely hot weather - but then nothing works very well in heat like that!).