Berry cake filling that's also great for use in pies, tarts, and other desserts!
This fresh berry cake filling is made with strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries. It's July here and I'm trying to use them all up before the season is over! You can freeze the leftovers to use later and have berry cake filling whenever you need it!
This berry cake filling tastes amazing in my berry chantilly cake recipe or mix it with easy buttercream and make fresh berry buttercream!
How to make berry cake filling
You can use frozen berries for this if you don't have fresh berries. Just defrost and puree if them berries are really large (like strawberries).
If you are using fresh berries you can also puree them ahead of time or you can just chop the strawberries into smaller pieces before you cook them. Blackberries and raspberries do not need to be chopped.
- Place berries in a medium saucepan with 5oz of sugar and bring to a simmer.
- Combine the cornstarch with the water to make a slurry. Pour the slurry into the bubbling berries.
- Cook a few minutes until the mixture is thick (1-2 minutes).
- Remove the berries from the heat and stir in the zest of one lemon and your lemon juice.
I pour my berry filling into a large cake pan and put it in the fridge so that it cools quickly (if you need to use it right away). Otherwise, you can store this berry cake filling in the fridge for 3 days or freeze for up to 6 months.
Berry cake filling is SO versatile and a must for your baking tool belt! You can use any variety and assortment of berries that you like. I used 1 cup each of strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. I used frozen but fresh is awesome too! You can also use other fruits like peaches, kiwis, pineapple etc. You can also increase the thickness of the filling if you like by adding an extra Tablespoon of cornstarch.
I used my berry cake filling to make this lemon berry cake! I combined about 1 cup of berry filling with my easy buttercream and whipped it until it was combined. Pro-tip, make sure your berry filling and buttercream are both room temp so they come together easily.
Recipe
Ingredients
Berry Cake Filling
- 20 ounces fresh or frozen berries about 4 cups
- 5 oz sugar
- 2 oz water
- 1 ½ oz cornstarch
- 1 zested lemon
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
Berry Cake Filling Instructions
- Place the berries in a medium saucepan with 5oz of sugar and bring to a simmer.
- Combine the cornstarch with the water to make a slurry. Pour the slurry into the bubbling berries.
- Cook a few minutes until the mixture is thick (1-2 minutes). Remove the berries from the heat and stir in the zest of one lemon and your lemon juice.
- Cool berry filling before using. Refrigerate for 3 days or freeze for 6 months.
Video
Nutrition
Sanjana Madathil sasikumar says
Can i use dried berries if yes then how?
Sugar Geek Show says
Not for this recipe, fresh or frozen only
Cynthia says
Do you have the recipe for the lemon berry cake using this filling? The picture looks amazing and I want to replicate it!
Elizabeth Marek says
Its my lemon cake recipe with this filling 🙂 https://sugargeekshow.com/lemon-cake-recipe/
Pattie says
This recipe is perfect. Is there away to use two fruits in this recipe , strawberries and huckleberries? How would you do this ? Thank you. You are terrific
Elizabeth Marek says
Definitely, you can use any combination of berries you want. Just use the same total weight as listed in the recipe
Denise says
Would it be possible to use this in the strawberry cake mix recipe instead of the strawberry puree? Or will it affect the cake batter?
Diana says
This is now my go-to recipe for fruit filling! I made this filling for a lemon cake and it was a hit...so simple to make. I used frozen raspberries (convenience), strained out the seeds (preference), and followed the recipe exactly to get the perfect consistency for filling a cake. Thank you for making this so easy!
The Sugar Geek Show says
Yum yum!! I love lemon and berry combos! So glad you liked this recipe 😀
Kelsey says
So delicious! It basically screams summer!
Helene says
Dear Liz
I love your bubbly personality and your videos
Is it possible to add metric measurements to your recipes - I'm in South Africa and it is difficult to convert to grams
Hope it will be possible
The Sugar Geek Show says
It's very easy to convert to grams. Use a google calculator. 1 oz = about 28 grams. It is a lot of work for me to convert the recipes to every type of measurement for everyone all over the world.
Pearl says
Why not use cup measurements instead of oz, at least everyone is farmiliar with that. Thanks for all ur recipes, they are on point
The Sugar Geek Show says
I don't use cups because I want the recipes to turn out for everyone who tries them. Volume is not accurate. Your cup of flour could be totally different than my cup of flour. Then your cake doesn't turn out and you get upset because you wasted ingredients. Professional bakers use weight, not cups for these reasons as well. A scale costs less than $20 and makes life a lot easier. I don't know why America has to make everything harder. Measuring by weight is literally so much easier than cups and less dishes.
Mihai says
Then why you measure the fruits using cups? How am I supposed to know how much fruits to use for this recipe if I live in Europe? There is no such thing as a conversion for "1 cup of fruits".
The Sugar Geek Show says
hi Mihai! You're totally right. This is a very old recipe so I have updated it with ounces 🙂