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I am making a chocolate cake for my son's birthday. Used a boxed cake mix (with a few substitutions) for the cake itself. Going to use chocolate frosting. Had the idea to put a light coat of strawberry jelly on the top and let is soak in before frosting.
Has anyone done that before? Will it work or just make the cake soggy?
Yes, you can do this and it is not unheard of in continental European-style cake recipes that tend to be on the dryer side than many American cakes. A good example of this is Sachertorte, which has a coating of apricot jam topped with a chocolate ganache.
If you have a firm-crumb cake (Sachertorte or pound cake or similar), this would work well, especially with a poured frosting or glaze. If you have a moister, crumblier cake it may (probably will) lose structure. In either case, the temperature of both the Jam and the cake matter. The cake should be fully cooled and the Jam glaze should be warm. Chill the glazed cake before attempting to frost it.
You can make a glaze by warming jam or thinning preserves slightly and cooking until it makes a thick sauce, then cooling slightly. Epicurious has a Sachertorte recipe including glaze if you want an example.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/apricot-glaze-231044
