So I have a Strawberry Shortcake themed cake to do for next Saturday... I have some opinions to ask of you guys...

I will be using a White Mix and turning it into a butter cake (I have made butter cakes from scratch before, but find the results to be inconsistent, so I think a mix is the way to go here!) and want to fill is with whipped cream but I have two problems... 

#1: I HATE whipped cream... it is yucky, and hard to work with... and you can't make it too far ahead of time, and it tends to lose it's structure... I have added gelatin, vanilla pudding... all to no avail. So I was planning on using SMBC with gelatin coated strawberries folded in... any thoughts on how to make the SMBC taste a little more like fresh whipped cream? 

#2: Using SMBC will buy me a TON of time... up to 3 days more work time... but I'm not sure about the strawberries... do you think I can push the strawberries as well... I want to get this cake stacked on wednesday... do you think that's pushing it with fresh strawberries inside???

Hi Jacki, sorry to rain on your parade, but soft fruits always make me nervous when cake decorating.  I would only risk including fresh strawberries one day ahead of serving.......sorry!!! Have you thought of using a strawberry preserve instead?

Yeah, yuck. I use chopped and pureed strawberries folded into SMBC as a filling often, but will only fill it the night before.

And it goes in the fridge every second I'm not decorating it, until it's time to soften up right before delivery.

AYeah... that's what I was thinking with the fresh strawberries... I was trying not to use preserves because I wanted it to resemble the flavor of strawberry shortcake... I have made strawberry smbc before using homemade jam, but while it was delicious, it bore no resemblance to strawberry shortcake... in this instance, I think maybe making some vanilla infused strawberry jam would give it a warmer flavor, which might make up for the lack of fresh strawberries... the decorating is more important than flavor on this one..

This might sound silly, but have you considered dehydrated strawberries? I used them the first time in a strawberry cake and they softened up nicely in the batter and had a good strawberry flavor. I'm not familiar with using SMBC, but perhaps they would soften up satisfactorily to carry the effect you're desiring. 

Just a thought I'd toss out.

Jan

AAren't they pretty tart?

I really didn't notice any tartness. But that was contained within the cake, itself. I would think that enrobed in a sweet frosting, it shouldn't be a problem. Like I said, it was just an idea. I have a package still in my cupboard but don't want to make up a recipe of SMBC to try it out. :)

Jan

AWell, for me, it's worth a shot... lol... I might just pick some up to try!

I am really interested in your opinion. Will be waiting for your next post. Sometimes something so far out really works. lol

Jan