I was just wondering just incase one day I might need too...What would be the best and safest way to mail a cake to someone???

There was a very helpful post about this a while back. I can't find the darn thing!

Hopefully Jan will see this post and be able to find it. She's great at researching.

That post was by me and I can tell you exactly how to do it!

We shipped a cake all the way to Florida a while back...from Washington! It made it nice and cool, and in perfect shape!

Here's how to ship a cake no matter how far it is going:

1) Once you've made and decorated your cake to your desired satisfaction, wrap it tight(without crushing it) in plastic and freeze it solid. This will take about 3 days if done properly.

2) Visit or call your nearest dry ice shipping company and let them know what you are looking to do. They can tell you how big a box you are going to need and how much it will cost.

Ours was about $25.00 for the box, ice and packing.

They will instruct you to bring in the cake, still fully frozen and inside a cooler or other type of "cold keeping" container. The shipping company will then cut the dry ice and pack the cake into the shipping container(which is a specialized styrofoam cooler within a special shipping box).

3) Take this shipping box to the Fed-ex office nearest to the place you had the cake packed for shipping. They will measure it, and ask you if it is a perishable food item(they have special handling for that), and then charge you for whatever is appropriate to your particular shipping need.

Destination is a factor so your price will likely be different than mine was. To ship the cake I made, a regular 9 inch 2 layer, it cost a total of $95.00 to ship. This was from Auburn, WA to Orlando, FL.

AND that is how to ship a cake! Let me know if you have any other questions!

Good luck to you!

so strange that i should notice this podt today - i have had the day from hell as a wedding cake i couriered to the other side of my state ended up 45 mins away in some barge depot on a persons desk instaed of at the wedding co-ordinators! the courier company then told me it was my fault even though both the box and invoice only had the correct address on it! they finally admitted fault after my near nervous breakdown and screaming hysterically down the phone for hours they finally got another courier to pick it back up and re deliver it to the corect address -thank god the wedding co-ordinator is an angel and had it all under control from her end (including the bride wonderinf were her cake was!) needless to say a rather large glass of wine was calling my name at 8pm tonight when i finally sat down (or rather collapsed in a heap!)

I've shipped quite a few cakes, never used dry ice. I wont ship cakes with special fillings, BC only.

I wrap the cakes well in plastic wrap, put them in the apporpriate bakers box. Fill that bakers box with peanuts. Put that bakers box in the shipping box, cram with more peanuts (I buy FDA approved ones). Two cakes I shipped from Ohio to Canada and California... both cakes were delivered upside down/on their side and the cakes were not harmed at all. It's all in the packaging!

Oh and always always always track it! I had one cake delivered to the wrong address! (UPS's fault, not mine)

Are you talking about iced and decorated cakes? Won't wrapping it crush the decorations?

Please help me understand this!!

I don't work in butter cream so i can't comment on this, but with my fondant cakes i wrap each decoration in bubble wrap then the entire cake then fill the empty space in the box with foam packing peanuts. if they are very delicate decorations i box them seperatly and include instructions on how to attach them so they dont get broken.

Ok here's a safe food handling and shipping tip...no matter how many cakes you've already shipped otherwise....

If you are shipping any "Parishable" food item, it is the law that you ship it in a container that is "food safe" and has an appropriate cooling system to insure both freshness and that the product is not contaminated in route due to some unforeseen circumstance.

I got that straight from the post office, and the other two places that I worked with that deal with shipment of food products. They all have policies that do not allow them to ship any food item that without a means of keeping it fresh and relatively safe from going bad. They were very clear on that.

All I can think is that your package, must not have been labeled "parishable food item". If it had been the package would have been handled much differently.

You are simply very lucky that non of your products have had any issues of contamination of some sort that would make a customer ill. Count your lucky stars!!!

The method I used is the most "food safe" and legal way to do it. The cost can be calculated into the costs of the cake.

It doesn't matter if your cake has a jelly filling, a mousse filling, BC or Fondant...the fact is that it is capable of becoming unfit to eat at anytime if it gets introduced to an environment that is conducive to growing any kind of bacteria. All it takes is for an item to get above 40 degrees, and you have trouble.

Not trying to preach here, but let's be really careful here ladies and gents with the care in which we send our hard work to unwitting customers. No one wants a client to get sick because we didnt' do everything right.

Good luck to you...

Momkiksbutt is absolutely right. I forgot to mention that i only use a perishable food courier. but having said that i just had the absolute worst experience my cake i shipped over the weekend not only got lost, was not put on as perishable even though i booked it as such, got smashed around and ruined and also managed to end up with ants in it!!! (I believe the later was due to the non perishables issue as how else would it have ended up in an area containing ants!) I was horrified devastated nearly had a nervousee breakdown trying to figure out how to fix the situation and am now out of pocket $300 as I had to fully refund the poor bride (of course i did with absolutely no hesitation as i had already ruined her day -well not personally but you know) but due to this nightmare I have decided no more shipments and have just had to cancell 4 cakes for the next 8 months, unfortunately 2 are to close to cancel and i will just have to cross every finger toe and anything else i can manage whislt holding my breath and praying!!!

Super timely! I may have to ship baked cake layers to CA in Sept., then fly down, defrost and decorate them for my cousin's wedding.

Thanks for posting!

AHello, i am very new to this site and i want to freeze a refrigerated cake/dessert for a bd to mail out, do i mail out the freeze and mail out the same? It is the kind of dessert where you take out of the oven and poke holes in it and add other ingredients topping it off with cool whip and coconut!

Here are a few links to previous threads.

http://cakecentral.com/t/503643/mailing-shipping-cakes

http://cakecentral.com/t/753620/mail-a-cake

http://cakecentral.com/t/718049/sending-a-cake-through-the-post-am-i-mad