heres the story...I am do a 2 tiered cake (6" and 10") and a 12X18 Sheet cake for a graduation. All are filled with ganache and fresh picked strawberries. the cakes are due on Saturday. heres my question...I filled the cakes today (Thurday) with both ganache and strawberries and (here comes pregnancy brain, im 31 weeks) my husband is worried that the strawberries may get gooey by Saturday! I did dry them best I could before putting them on the cake but now I'm concerned! was it to soon to put the strawberries in? what would be best now...put the cakes in the freezer or fridge? I was planning on covering the cakes in ganache tomorrow and decorating the sheet cake then decorating the tiered cake on Saturday morning. what do I do? are my cakes gonna be ruined? should I scrape the strawberries out of the cakes? thanks!!

I feel so badly for you but yes, you need to remove the strawberries or they'll definitely go gooshy and get slimy by Saturday.  You can put a bit of seedless strawberry jam in place of the fresh strawberries.  Sorry for the bad news but fresh fruit has a wicked short life.

I agree with DeniseNH, remove the fresh strawberries, replace with shelf-stable strawberry jam.  I make a LOT of chocolate covered strawberries for friends and family.  Once the berries have been gently and carefully cleaned and left to air dry for 2 hours, there is only a 24 hour window to get them dipped in chocolate, packaged, delivered and eaten by the recipient.

i freeze fresh strawberry filled cakes--they are cut with a nice sharp knife which miraculously reduces weepage and they are encased in whipping cream-- i put a layer of wc on the cake, put my berries (cut small so they serve well) laid out like a mosaic and another layer of whipped cream-- works for me

I often fill my cakes with whipped heavy cream and lay out sliced strawberries on top. Tested for 3 days, it was fine. Store bought strawberries like Wal Mart`s and Costco`s don`t have much juice in them, I never had weeping strawberries problem. Local,  pick yourself strawberries are different.

CC responses are sure to dissuade you from any form of fresh fruit if for no other reason than it might work one day and not the next.  Overall, "not the next" is sure to win the more popular answer.  There are several very awesome strawberry filling recipes on CC that I can vouch for as tasting like fresh strawberries but having days - not hours - of shelf life.  If you want a couple of my favorites, holler.  I trusted these solutions enough that I used one for my own daughter's cake if that gives votes of confidence to avoid fresh strawberries, and any fresh fruits for that matter, as a rule of thumb.  Happy Baking --

A

You betcha. I won't fill with fresh fruit any sooner than at the last possible moment.

If it was just two days, though, and the cakes are refrigerated, and the fruit is encased in ganache, it should be fine.

and use a super sharp knife--