The BEST Cake Filling Recipe - Fresh Fruit Compote ⋆ Shani's Sweet Art (2024)

Hello Sweet Friends! Today I have a great recipe for you. Fresh Fruit or Berry Compote.

Doesn’t that look mouthwateringly delicious?!

This is my Go To recipe when I need a delicious fruit filling for my cakes. It couldn’t be quicker or easier. Best of all is perfect for many other things… ice cream topping, pancake and waffle topping, use it to fill a doughnut instead of jam, marble it into your favorite coffee cake recipe… the possibilities are endless!

Lemon cake with fresh blueberry compote filling

I particularlylove it because you can adjust the amount of sugar to the sweetness level you like. Since I don’t care for things that are super sweet I keep the sugar level to a minimum, this way the beautiful fresh fruit flavor shines through! I’ve never been a huge fan of jam for cake filling because it’s too sweet for me. Now fruit filling is one of my favorite options.

You can use pretty much any fruit, berry or combination with this recipe. You can use fresh or frozen fruit as well. Of course fresh is best but sometimes that just isn’t possible or practical.

So here is my quick and simple process ~

Of course first you want to wash your fruit or berries. I talked about the BEST way to wash your berries over on this post (pssst! while you are over there you might want to check out how to make some pretty spectacular marbled chocolate strawberries! They are way easier than the look!)

Now you will want to dice up your fruit. I’m going to show you my process using strawberries. I like to do a fine dice on the fruit because I like some texture and small pieces of fruit in my compote and doing this makes it so you A. don’t have to cook the compote very long so you retain a maximum amount of fresh flavor, and B. you don’t need to mash the fruit which results in a more mushy texture with larger pieces of fruit ( you can totally do this if you like that texture though!) I find it makes a much more pleasing texture to have small juicy pieces of the fruit. You certainly don’t want large chunks of fruit though, it’s just not easy for getting a smooth even layer so your cakes stay level as you stack the layers.

Now add your fruit, sugar and lemon juice to the pan and cook on medium until it starts to boil. Turn down the heat and gently simmer for about 3 to 5 minutes. At this point you can test for sweetness level. Add more sugar if it needs to be a little sweeter.

Make a slurry with your corn starch and water and add to the fruit. Continue simmering and stirring constantly for another minute until it thickens. You can add a little more corn starch slurry if you would like it thicker. REMEMBER this will thicken A LOT more when it cools and sets in the fridge!

Let it cool and then store in the fridge for up to 3 days. It also freezes beautifully! I often make twice as much as I will need for an order so I can have some on hand in the freezer for those pesky last minute orders. When used as a filling in cakes I do recommend that the cakes not be left out at room temperature for more than 4 hours at a time.

Next on my recipe test list is fresh mango compote. How does that sound? Don’t you think it would be heavenly in a coconut cake?? Do you have any other ideas for fabulous fruit combinations? Let me know in the comments and I will give them a try!

Have a Sweet Day!

For more of my delicious recipes check out the following posts

Fresh Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Salted Bourbon Caramel Sauce

Fresh Chocolate Whipped Cream

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