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 can be left out 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 in 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 in the heat for a period of time. Did you know that? it’s misleading. It sets firmly so you can use it as a filling in sculpted cakes and you can shape it into truffles which are delicious to eat, but when a ganache filled cake sits in the heat the ganache softens and starts to disintegrate which if it’s a stacked cake, it could fall.

Do a little planning ahead. Make sure your clients or hosts are informed about the types of fillers that would be most suitable for their events.

Fillings can be made from scratch or purchased. Fillings made from scratch are highly perishable and must remain refrigerated. New stuffing recipes should not be tried the night before an event. If you have to make something new, try the recipe two weeks in advance. That way, if you need to make changes, you’ll have time to do so or get help.

Fillings that come in bags at your local bakery can be used right out of the bag as is and the rest can be refrigerated for up to 6 months.

If you decide 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 cream for your filling, use the spray can version, sprinkle with icing sugar and add your fresh fruit and top with more canned whipping 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 rubbery if you stack it early.

Refrigerated Fillings

If your event is held indoors, whether it’s in a large room 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-type 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. Many people fill refrigerators with everything else and then have to scramble to find room for cake. You can’t sit for a long period of time, or there will be a disaster.

Speaking of messes, please don’t mix up a batch of pudding mix as directed on the box and use it as a filling for your cakes. Unless it’s made like a mousse, it won’t hold the weight of the cake on top and will ooze and make a mess.

When in doubt, make a test cake to see what happens when you refrigerate it with the intended filling and icing/fondant. You don’t want to be surprised by this.

Chilled fillings are delicious, although they are sometimes a double-edged sword. Butter cakes don’t taste the best fresh out of the fridge. Combine them with a chilled filling and you will have to choose. 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. Change 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 stuffing liners 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 piping, remember to pack the icing around the edge of the cake. You don’t want it to spill over once the cake sets. Trust me this time. That is why it is best to use the following technique for fillings.

Make sure you have a thick dam of frosting 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 icing dam, spread the lemon filling, and then put together the two layers.Icing goes between the cake layers so it will be:

Thin layer of frosting covering the entire cake:

lemon cake

Presa Glaze – Lemon Filling

lemon cake

middle frosting layer

lemon cake

Presa Glaze – Lemon Filling

lemon cake

cake board

Always refrigerate to let the frosting set. Once it’s ready, cover the cake with fondant. Place your cake in a cake box that has room for it 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 cake makes it easier to cut so the filling doesn’t ooze 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 up.” Do not 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 shiny, wet look will be gone.

What kind of padding 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 cake filled with custard because it will separate. The whipped cream cakes 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 don’t 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 cake fillings to take your cakes to new heights. Just stay safe.