As a cake decorator selling your cakes or a home baker making desserts for friends and family, it’s important to know all the facts about fillings, which ones should be refrigerated and which ones can be left at room temperature. Your reputation may depend on it, and you certainly don’t want to make anyone sick.
We know that buttercream frosting doesn’t hold up well to heat. Think of a fondant-covered cake with a filling. Do you think it’s safe to be outside in the heat? Maybe not. The chocolate ganache filling melts if left on the heat for any length of time. Did you know that? It’s tricky. It sets firmly so you can use it as a filling in sculpted pies and can be shaped into truffles that are delicious to eat, but when a ganache-filled pie sits in the heat, the ganache softens and begins to disintegrate which, if it’s a stacked cake, it could fall over.
Do some planning ahead. Make sure your clients or hosts are informed about the types of fillings that would be best suited for their events.
The fillings can be made from scratch or purchased. Fillings made from scratch are highly perishable and must remain refrigerated. No new stuffing recipes should be tried the night before an event. If you have to make something new, try the recipe two weeks before. That way, if you need to make changes, you’ll have time to do it or get help.
The fillings that come in bags at your local pastry shop can be used right out of the bag as is and the rest can be refrigerated for up to 6 months.
If you choose to use fresh fruit in your filling, be sure to use the freshest fruit you can find and prepare it as close to serving time as possible. If you must assemble the cake the night before (for example, strawberry shortcake with fresh strawberries in the middle), cut the fruit in half. Smaller pieces will turn musky overnight and won’t make a good presentation.
If you’re not sure how to properly whip the cream for your filling, use the spray can version, dust with icing sugar and add your fresh fruit and top with more canned whipped cream and more icing sugar.
If your cake has a fresh fruit filling and is covered in fondant, stack the cakes instead. The fondant will become gummy if you stack it earlier.
Refrigerated Fillings
If your event is being held indoors, either in a large ballroom or someone’s home, feel free to use a filler that needs to be refrigerated. Cream cheese, custard, custard, whipped cream, puddings, and any mousse-like filling that includes fresh fruit are perfect for these places. Cakes can remain refrigerated until just before serving. Let people know when they order these fillings that there must be room in the refrigerator to store the pie until it is served. Lots of people fill their fridges with everything else and then have to scramble to find room for the cake. You can’t sit for a long period of time, or there will be a disaster.
Speaking of disasters, please do not mix up a batch of the pudding mix as directed on the box and use it as a filling for your pies. Unless it’s made as a mousse, it won’t hold the weight of the cake on top and will ooze and make a mess.
If in doubt, make a test cake to see what happens when you refrigerate it with the intended filling and frosting/fondant. You don’t want to be surprised by this.
Refrigerated fillings are delicious, although they can be a double-edged sword at times. Shortbread cakes don’t taste the best straight out of the fridge. Pair them with a refrigerated filling and you’re spoiled for choice. Cold cake or warm filling. Either one is not good. And you don’t want people telling the host/hostess that the cake was “dry” because it was cold. Switch to a different cake recipe or use sugar syrup on your cake layers before assembling to help the cake retain moisture so it doesn’t dry out while in the fridge.
Remember that gum paste and royal icing decorations on a cake will be ruined if refrigerated.
Non-Refrigerated Fillings
Any of the filling sleeves purchased at your local cake decorating store should be fine at room temperature. So are jellies, preservatives, and ganache. Whenever you use the fillings in the sleeves, remember to dam the frosting around the edge of the cake. You don’t want any spillage once the cake sets. Trust me this time. That is why it is better to use the following technique for fillings.
Make sure you have a thick frosting dike around the edge of the cake. Add a layer of filling no more than 1/4″ high. For example, whenever I use lemon filling, I divide the cake layer in half, add the frosting dam, spread the lemon filling, and then fold together. the two layers.Frosting goes between the layers of the cake so it will be:
Thin layer of frosting that covers the entire cake:
lemon cake
Prey Glaze – Lemon Filling
lemon cake
medium frosting layer
lemon cake
Prey Glaze – Lemon Filling
lemon cake
cake board
Always refrigerate to allow the frosting to set. Once it’s done, cover the cake with fondant. Place your cake in a cake box that has room to fit without the fondant touching the top or sides of the box. Refrigerate again to set. This is your insurance policy when you deliver the cake. If the party is at your house and it’s cool inside, you can leave it outside. Refrigerating this type of pie makes it easier to cut so the filling doesn’t spill out of each slice. You want a good presentation.
When you take your cake out of the fridge, remember to give it time to “sweat”. Don’t touch it during this period or you will leave a mark. Let the cake come to room temperature. Usually, by the time you travel to your destination and it’s time to serve the cake, the fondant will be fine to slice and the wet, shiny look will be gone.
What kind of filler is it?
Lemon, chocolate, caramel, banana, apricot, chocolate chips, and a few other fillings are easily recognized in a cake just by looking at them. Don’t make your guests guess what they are eating. Make business cards for each table that include this information or add them to the menu card. With so many food allergies, you don’t want to be remembered for making someone sick.
To freeze or not to freeze
Never freeze a pastry filled with custard because it will separate. The whipped cream pies have been frozen. It depends on the type of cream used. Check the container to see if it tells you that it can be frozen because you do not want your cake to cry. Rose Berenbaum, in her book The Cake Bible, shows you how to stabilize whipped cream with gelatin.
Enjoy using your pie fillings to take your pies to higher levels. Just stay safe.