I’m going to be baking a three tier wedding cake, decorated with fresh strawberries and raspberries. A friend (whose not a baker) suggested I put some sort of sugar glaze on the fruit to keep it from bleeding into the frosting. This morning I did a test run brushing some berries with apricot glaze. It worked, but I’m not sure if I like the way it looks any more than unglazed fruit and I think the glaze might have more of chance of softening and running than the fruit itself. Does anyone have any experience decorating cakes with fresh fruit?

I have no experience on this—so be warned!  However, it might work to dip the fruits partway (the part that will touch the cake) in chocolate (white or regular) that will look nice with the frosting.  I’m not sure what the exterior of the cake will be—buttercream/fondant/ganache—so that might make a difference as well.  No doubt someone with more experience will jump in, but I thought I’d mention the chocolate (although it might be a bit more complicated with raspberries than strawberries).

Thanks! That was actually my original plan. The exterior will be white chocolate ganache so I was planning to dab the fruit with some ganache before placing it on the cake.

I agree with Anne.  The purpose of a fruit glaze is to add shine and sweetness to fresh fruit, and it will only last for a few hours before it starts to mix with water from the fruit and then end up on the cake.  I don’t think it will be very effective in separating the fruit from the ganache.  Chocolate should work well- dip the fruit in chocolate and then place the dipped portion down into the ganace.  I did this with some caramel to keep the sugar from melting into the frosting, it worked well.