I need help!

I have agreed to make a friend's wedding cake, out of town. I will be baking the cake in Houston, flying it with me to Pittsburg, and decorating it there.

Does anyone have suggestions for how to package/mail an undecorated cake?

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!

Have you seen the cake shows where mailed baked cakes end up crushed or in crumbles - you can mail an uniced cake but whether or not it will make it to its destination in one piece is questionable at best. The more solid the cake (fruit cake or pound cake) the better your chances. I packed an uniced cake in a huge computer box once - with tons of icepacks - and traveled by car from NH to Carolina once then decorated the cake in my hotel room but I advise against it.

Your best bet would be I "think" to take it on the plane with you, and you carry the box its neatly packed in and put it in the over head compartment. Where you can actually see the box, but even then its taking a risk.

Cakes never make it even with FED EX, UPS packed with bubble wraps and foam.

wish they would!!!

There are a lot of threads on this subject already, but I did this a few years ago. Mine was a small birthday cake. I even put those cigar cookies all around the edges to further protect it. I put it inside a container that enveloped the cake, put that into another padded box and then put that into another padded box. I sent it through the Post Office, NEVER UPS, and sent it overnight. It arrived overnight in one piece, but that piece was somewhat rattled. My mom loved it and said it was perfect, but that's a mom saying that. That small cake cost me over $150 to send it!! Now, that was a decorated cake.
I would take the advice of others and carry it with you on the plane if you can anymore. I would freeze it and wrap it a zillion times in plastic so it remains firm. By the time you get there it will have defrosted but still will be firm. Good luck!

Bronwen Weber ships cakes. Here is the info from her site. Call & ask them how they do it!

Frosted Art Bakery
1546 Edison St
Dallas, TX 75207-3705

Phone: 214.760.8707
Fax: 214.760.9196

Email: Bronwen Weber
[email protected]

Christine Throgmorton
[email protected]

Melissa Markland
[email protected]

If you do call Bronwen, please post their response here. I'd like to know as well. Thanks!

I've shipped two cakes via UPS to granddaughters in WV and PA. They were decorated and arrived intact. I lined sturdy cardboard boxes with 1 inch styrofoam, made a compartment for dry ice under the cake, froze the cakes then wrapped them in wax paper and then in plastic wrap. I also labelled the boxes so they knew they were handling cakes. From the shipping information, they were each loaded and unloaded 3-5 times so I was worried but both arrived with very little damage. You just have to make sure there is no room for shifting and I think starting with frozen cakes helped. Good luck.

I know people ship decorated cakes. And they make it OK. It might depend on how you package them. Yours might be easier because they're undecorated.

http://jessicakesblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/successful-experiment.html

I Just mailed my daughter her Birthday cake, frosted with buttercream and covered in fondant. With a gumpaste and fondant kung fu panda on top. I started with a styrofoam box. Cut a cake board to fit somewhat tightly in the box. (I cut the corners off so that you can get the cake out of the box). I then used florists putty on the underside of my board with the decorated cake on it.
That cake isn't going anywhere! Then I used mini marshmallows and filled it to the brim ( I had to push down on it to get the lid on it). I am very confidant that it will get there just fine. I also wrote on the outside that it was a birthday cake, and what side was up. Also got one of the postal workers interested in my work, who has a daughter getting married next month! LOL!

Thanks all for the advice! I got all 6 layers to Pennsylvania safely, and the cake came out great!

Here's what I did:
-Wrapped each layer in saran wrap and aluminum foil and froze day of.
-Put each layer in it's own cake box, packaged with tissue
-Stacked the cake boxes in a large cardboard with bubble wrap at the bottom.
-Filled open spaces with expanding foam (I did this at my Dad's office which ships a lot, but I'm sure it's available at shipping places as well)
-Added a handle out of tape so the box could be easily transferred top-up at the airport
-made sure to write WEDDING CAKE WEDDING CAKE all over the box so it WOULD travel top-up.

The foam actually also did a great job of insulating the cakes for the duration of the trip.

Not sure I'll do this again! But I'm glad I've figured it out, just in case I do.

expanding foam= brilliant!