Is it possible to ship a cake? Like a birthday cake. Not a wedding cake.

My family lives 1500 miles away from me and is always asking for cakes. I of course can not jump on a plane to make a birthday cake every time. But it got me thinking. Is it possible to ship cakes?? I know some companies ship pies. I guess my worry is that the shipper will turn it upside down and mush! But it would be the same with shipping pies.

Hmm....just thinking. Any thoughts? Or has anyone tried this?

It could be probably be done. The grocery stores get some of their cakes pre-decorated. If you put it in one of the plastic containers like the grocery store does. Freeze it and put it in a box then put that box in a bigger box with dry ice? Might inccur some damage but it should be minimal if the cake stays frozen.

Val

It's a pain in the butt and frightfully expensive. But otherwise no problem.

I've had success with this method:

First, make sure you're not doing any decorating that's overly fragile. Also, you don't want anything that sticks out from the cake too far. After decorating, freeze the cake solid. Remove from the freezer and wrap with plastic wrap -- not so tight that it might squish the decorations -- just enough to cover. Place in a cake box, and stuff the box with fiberfill. That'll keep the cake from bouncing around in the box so your decorations are safe. Wrap the cake box with plastic wrap and return to the freezer until you're ready to ship.

Prepare the shipping box. You want a box that's larger than your cake box by at least 4" on every side. Best is to line the box with styrofoam -- get sheet insulation from the home improvement store and cut to fit snugly inside the box on all sides. If you don't want to do that, just use styrofoam peanuts, but they won't insulate as well. Place a layer of styrofoam peanuts in the insulated box, place your frozen cake on the peanuts, add one or two of those frozen, sealed ice packs (dry ice is great, but it dissipates and leaves an empty space which means things have room to shift around), and fill with peanuts. Seal the box and drive it straight to the shipper. Ship overnight. Your cake should still be frozen when it arrives (I tried 2-day air once, and the cake thawed enough that it got a bit damaged by rough handling).

To thaw, have your recipients place the wrapped cake box in the fridge at least overnight, then remove the fiberfill, return to the cake box, and let come to room temperature before opening the box again.

Expect to pay way more than you want to for shipping. Up to $100 per cake depending on how heavy it is and how far it's going.

*gulp* $100/cake. I think I'll just send a present! LOL.

Thanks for sharing BKeith.

I was just inquiring about this yesterday! I had requests to ship cupcake cakes... and I'm really leary about trying that. I think I'll test ship a regular cake to a family member and see how that goes...
I have a client who wants me to ship to him, but I dont think he's going to want to take on those shipping rates!!!

Here is a link that shows how I was able to ship a cake to my best friend 900 miles away. I also wanted to add that I did not freeze the cake, although that is a great idea, and would have kept it cooler longer.

I hope this helps you.

Vicki

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopicp-5150443-.html#5150443