Believe it or not, I’ve never made the Strawberry rendition of the IMBC.  So…I’m making the strawberry sauce/puree and am a bit confused (TCB version, btw).  In the IMBC directions, it says to add up to 3/4 c. lightly sweetened strawberry puree.  Here’s the confusing part (for me, anyway). In the strawberry sauce/puree recipe, the berries are strained and the juice is concentrated and added back to the pureed strawberries (with optional sugar).  What does Rose mean by the lightly sweetened puree? 

Do I add sugar to the pureed berries and NOT add the reduced juice?  OR do I add the sugar to the pureed berries and also add the reduced juices?  I recall finding this unclear with the raspberry puree as well because she calls the recipe a puree and a sauce and I interpret her version of “sauce” to mean the puree, juices, and sugar and her version of “puree” to mean puree, juices, and NO sugar.  So when she calls for “lightly sweetened puree”, I am confused!

I tracked down some previous post re: my questions on this and think I am ok to go ahead and assume sauce and puree are interchangeable.  I am hoping so as I will be adding the reduced juices to the puree!

Sherrie, you have it figured out….....when Rose refers to the “puree” alone, she’s referring to the mixture of strained, pureed fruit and reduced juice. The “sauce” = “puree” + added sugar =“lightly sweetened puree”.

A word of caution regarding the level of sugar added to the puree; I’m sure it’s a matter of personal taste but I’ve found that the strawberry IMBC tastes more like the fresh fruit if the unsweetened puree is added.

Sophia has the right of it- add the puree = frozen pulverized strawberries + reduced juice.  You can skip the additional sugar which turns it into a “sauce”. 

Do tell, what are the other components?

I’m doing the deep choco passion cake base (not sure if I will syrup with the milk choco syrup or not)—then fill with strawberry IMBC and frost with white chocolate IMBC.  Then….the winter wonderland theme birthday decorations of meringue snow men (not sure how I will make top hats for them, yet!) and a blue sugar lake (I’m planning to melt the blue sugar crystals—or, if anyone has experience adding food coloring to sugar syrups—does it affect crystallization?).  I’m also hoping to make meringue swow capped evergreen trees.  I’d also like to add red chocolate plastic scarves and chocolate arms. —That’s my son’s b-day cake. 

For my daughter…she gets the snowflake cake.  But I’m really challenged since it’s her first birthday and she’s just started eating solids (we have egg/dairy/nut allergies in the family and I don’t know if she’s allergic to anything yet) so I want a cake she can eat without a trip to the hospital!!!  She does like blueberries so I might go the way of a lemon chiffon with lemon curd filling studded with blueberries and a fondant outside—but I don’t know if dairy or eggs are an issue for her which may totally veto the chiffon and defintely no buttercream.  I’ve made lemon curd with (heaven forbid—shortening!!) but if it needs to be dairy free, it’s an option.  I really wanted to do a 7 minute frosting for her cake, but suspect eqg whites could be a potential issue.  Definitely open to suggestions on this one!!  Plan to use the royal icing snowflakes to decorate (not feed to her!)

Sounds amazing, can’t wait to see them!  Your kids are very lucky!