The Top Tip For Turning Strawberries Into A Stunning Cake Decoration

When you're looking for the perfect topping for a homemade strawberry coconut cake (or a variety of cakes, for that matter), look no further than fresh strawberries. The fruit, when thinly sliced lengthwise with a paring knife and layered in a circular pattern on top of your cake, creates a show-stopper look and adds some edible intrigue and height to your baking masterpiece.

If you've never tried topping your cake with strawberries or have tried only to end up with floppy, dried-out pieces of fruit that dull in color, there's one essential tip for achieving a gorgeous fruit-topped cake: jelly glaze. To add a sheen and flavor to a strawberry-topped cake, simply make a fruit glaze with melted fruit jelly, jam, or preserves, thinned out with a bit of water. 

The glaze, when gently brushed atop cut and assembled strawberries, acts to preserve the moisture in the fruit as the cake sits and also adds a pop of brightness and shine to make your edible cake decor truly stand out.

To make a fruit glaze, first choose your preferred fruit spread flavor. The tartness of raspberry jelly compliments strawberries' sweet, earthy notes wonderfully, but you can also opt for a strawberry variety to accentuate the floral notes of the berry. Go for apricot jam to add a subtle hint of stone fruit. To allow the strawberries to shine (literally), it's important to avoid darker-colored spreads, such as blackberry or summer mixed berry jam.

Next, heat your jelly in a saucepan over medium heat with one tablespoon of water, orange juice, or fruit liqueur for every half-cup of jelly. Stir the mixture frequently until combined and melted, then remove the glaze from the heat. Allow it to cool slightly, and apply the glaze gently with a pastry brush directly to the strawberries on top of your cake. In a pinch, a microwave works to melt the jelly — just make sure to check it at 30 second intervals to avoid splatters and overheating.

To note: for ease of preparation, jellies will typically make for a better glaze, as they're made from gelatinized juice of the crushed fruit, compared to jams and preserves which both contain fruit pieces, chunks, and pulp. However, if you only have jam or preserves on hand, seedless varieties will work just fine. You'll just need to remove any large fruit chunks with a fine mesh strainer once you've melted the spread.

To customize your cake before applying the glaze, it can be fun to really lean into your artistic baker within by getting creative with sizes and cuts of the strawberries, as well as patterns in which you assemble and layer the fruit. You may choose a simple route of cutting the strawberries into halves or quarters, applying them as an elegant border for homemade strawberry angel food cake. Or, play around with a rustic look by stacking strawberries atop the cake, leaving the stems on some of the fruit or adding pieces of mint to introduce accented pops of greenery.

Whichever way you decide to assemble your strawberries atop your cake or other desserts, once you are happy with the design, be sure to apply your fruit glaze to keep the fruit moist, vibrantly colorful, and undeniably shiny. The result: a truly gourmet bake, that keeps its beautiful appearance and taste. Once you glaze your strawberry cake decor with a fruit glaze, you won't want to look back. The same method can be applied to other fruit you decorate your cake with, as well as glazing fruit layered on top of other bakes, such as homemade mini fruit tarts and dessert pizzas.