Cake: To Fill or not to Fill

[RealLifeMama]

I am making DD and DS's birthday cake.
I have discovered that a lot of people really like filled cakes, as in filling between layers.
The cake has a few layers, so I am wondering if I should do filling instead of just regular icing between layers like I usually do.
What do you all think?
The cake is half chocolate and half yellow, though. As in, the bottom is chocolate and the top of yellow. So, I have no idea what to make for filling.
I will just use plain ol' vanilla buttercream to ice.
There will be some adults eating cake, but mostly kids, so I don't want to overwhelm them with chocolate.
What do you think?

[CakeLady]

A favorite over here is Strawberry Jam, but any yummy jam will do. Also, pudding is a good choice. Of course, sometimes plain buttercream is the easiest.

[RealLifeMama]

Yay, I am so gald you replied to my thread!


Of course, sometimes plain buttercream is the easiest.


In the past when I have made my kids birthday cakes, I just have put the same buttercream that I am icing the outside with in between the layers. Is that what you mean, or is there a seperate kind of buttercream filling?

Strawberry jam might be yummy. Do you just make a dam around the outside and then put the jam in the middle straight from the jar, or do you do anything to the jam?

[HummusDip]

I'd personally do chocolate frosting all day long on that cake, between each layer and on top! I LOVE choc/yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

Ok totally drooling pregnant lady here.

Off to go bake a cake...

[CakeLady]

Yep, I do a dam around the perimeter. Sometimes I do straight strawberry jam and sometimes I mix it with some cool whip for a lighter texture (though this has to be in the fridge).

[cheri]

I really like a jam type filling like strawberry or raspberry. I also think that a flavored buttercream, like strawberry, is delicious!

[CakeLady]

I also think that a flavored buttercream, like strawberry, is delicious!


yum....i like this too :yes


Yay, I am so gald you replied to my thread!


:O You can always PM me or send an email....I'm happy to help.

[RealLifeMama]

Thank you so much. I took the suggestion of making strawberry buttercream. I did not have any jam, so I would up googling strawberry buttercream and found a suggestion to just use the liquid from frozen strawberries in the buttercream. I tried that, but it did not taste strawberry enough. So, I just crushed the rest of the berries with my food chopper and added them to the buttercream.
The base was 1 stick butter, 1 1/2 cup shortening, and 2 pounds of powdered sugar. I added in total one pack of frozen sweetened strawberries. It tasted really, really good, but I was afraid that the cake would slide once I took it outside, so I added some more sugar to thicken it up and then I added a couple tbs meringue powder to make it more stable.

To make my cake, I needed square pans of three 10 inch layers and three 6 inch layers. I did not have those pans, so I had to cut three sheet cakes to those sizes instead. I had made two pans of chocolate and one pan of vanilla, and the cake had 6 layers in all, so it alternated vanilla/choc layers, and then with the strawberry in the middle, it was so yummy!! Neopolitan cake!
Rarely do I make something and just go "oh, my! That is soooo good!" but this really was! And it looked really nice when it was cut, too.

I have a ton of strawberry icing left, though. Do you think I can freeze it still since the strawberries were previously frozen?
Thank you so much for the suggestion.

[CakeLady]

:yes

but you'll want to thaw it in the fridge instead of on the counter due to the strawberries. Did you take a pic????

[RealLifeMama]

I don't have a picture of the cake after it was cut, but I will go post some pictures in the appropriate forum.

[Marielle]

I love using pineapple preserves on cakes. It's not an overtly strong flavor but delicious with most poundcake type batters.

Amy I remember making some strawberry buttercream from a martha stewart recipe and she added strawberry jam that you can puree a bit before. The strawberry flavor really came through and the color was beautiful.

[RealLifeMama]

Amy I remember making some strawberry buttercream from a martha stewart recipe and she added strawberry jam that you can puree a bit before. The strawberry flavor really came through and the color was beautiful.



Jam probably would have been better, and I wish I had had some, but I just was not going to make one more trip to the store, LOL. I must have gone to the store for something party related 100 times last week!

I can't seem to find any party pics that don't have other kids in them, and I am not going to post pics of other people's kids without their permission, so I will just post the cake picture here.

I used the kit that Wilton makes. The middle squares are the cake, everything else is plastic.
I learned a lot putting this together- it was my first time working with fondant like this. I have cut out polka dots and stuck them on a cake before, but I have never tried to cover a cake or do so many accents. It took forever! I started Wednesday making the fondant, and then started covering the towers and baking the cakes Thursday, iced them Friday, and finished making the accents, and by the time Sat was here, I still was not finished, and I did not even finish the back of the cake and was kind of haphazardly sticking the accents on. Then, the towers kept falling off when the wind blew outside. I used candy melts instead of royal icing for glue, and it did not hold. It was kind of a disaster, but the kids liked it. I guess I could say it was a practice cake, only I will probably never do it again. :giggle :phew

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y52/AandNsMom/DSC04409-1.jpg

[Marielle]

Amy it's beautiful! I saw your theme in the other thread and my kids love that too. I'm sure the kids loved it. Sounds yummy too.

[CakeLady]

I think it looks great! I've never made a castle cake, but I hear they are a pain to do....you did a fantastic job!!! :heart