cake filling | Design Me a Cake

I grew up with a Guava tree in the backyard of our house. It made me a guava lover. This is a very common filling in baking and it’s pretty easy to do. I have a hard time finding the fruit where I live now but I can find the guava paste easily in the Hispanic section of most supermarkets. It’s also easily found in the internet. I will post some links below.

Sometimes you will find the jam but I find it too soft for cakes. Even though you can still use the jam in a cake, I do prefer a thicker consistency which provides a less slippery cake. This is something important that you need to consider when you’re stacking a cake.

I always tell people that if they are using jams as fillings, they have to make sure not to overfill the cake and use a dam. Usually jams have a lot of flavor and a little goes a long way. If you want to have more filling, you can always add more layers to the cake instead of trying to pack a lot of filling the same layer and making everything slippery and hard to work with.

I love using guava paste. You can control how thick or thin you want the filling to be and fix the consistency at any time. You can do this with a food processor, in the stove or the microwave. I do get lazy sometimes and use the microwave, mostly because it works fast. But the other options work well too, especially if you don’t use microwaves or if you don’t own a food processor. I do go through all the steps in the tutorial I posted, (click here for tutorial).

I know some people love to add orange juice as the thinning agent. I personally don’t use it. I feel the guava tastes delicious without adding other flavors but if you like the idea, then go ahead and try it. Some people also like using lemon and others like adding some of the zest of the fruit they are using.

I posted a basic recipe in the website. Even if you prefer using the fruit, keep in mind that you can thin the recipe more if you prefer a thinner consistency just by adding some warm water. If you want a thick consistency, you can warm the paste and add it warm to the cake. This is a matter of preference and that’s why I am giving you the options so you can choose the one you prefer. Do keep in mind that if you plan to use it on top of an iced cake, if the paste is too warm, it will melt the buttercream.

Since I love a medium/thick texture on top of the buttercream, I do warm it a little but not too much. I also make sure that my buttercream is cold. I won’t lie, it’s a bit harder to ice a cake with the thicker paste over buttercream, especially if it’s too hot. So make sure it has a medium consistency so it’s easier to spread. If you already placed it on the cake and it’s giving you a hard time because it’s too thick, you can place the spatula in hot water. Once the spatula is hot, dry it with some paper and this will help smooth out the paste. If this doesn’t help you, then you can take some of the leftover paste recipe and thin it a bit with more water and then add it on top of the thicker paste. This will help you smooth everything out.

You can test all of these techniques but, if you prefer to avoid the trouble, adding the guava on top of the buttercream is just done for looks. You will get enough guava flavor by just adding it as a filling. Then again, people like me love guava that much. I never mind the extra guava flavor! Lol!!!

Check the tutorial for the Guava Filling Recipe. Click here or on the photo for the step by step tutorial.