Has anybody shipped a cake across the USA with success?

I sent a fondant covered cake, with buttercream underneath from Texas to Minnesota in May with no problem.
1. Anchor your cake to the cakeboard with alot of frosting underneath. Make sure your cakeboard is a little bigger than the actual cake. I use several cake boards glued together, or one of the cake bases.
2. I used a glue stick on the underside of the cake base to secure it to the bottom of the box.
3. Place your decorated cake in the box and place styrofoam sheets around all insides of box, making sure there is a tight ,tight fit against your cake board. Cut your styrofoam sheets short by the width of your sheets so you can then place a sheet over the top, that goes to all edges of the box.
4. I then marked the box with FRAGILE DECORATED CAKE! and THIS SIDE UP! on all sides in bold marker.
I think using the smallest box possible helps. The cake arrived just perfectly. HTH. Good Luck!

I often ship cakes. There was someone on here that shipped a fully decorated, stacked wedding cake! The furthest I've shipped was from Utah to PA. It arrived with a little damage. I've been shipping them from UT to CA, AR, NV, NM, AZ and WA with no problems.

I only ship fondant covered cakes with flush decorations (so no bows etc). I freeze the cake and wrap it in several layers of plastic wrap onto the board. I go to the dry ice place and get a dry ice box with a cooler inside. It's usually already labeled for this side up and fragile (although in my experience those warnings are ignored!). I let the cake get frozen and then take it out. If shipping thru USPS they will only allow you to ship 5 lbs of dry ice. (hence frozen cake, it makes the dry ice last longer). I put foam peanuts around the frozen cake and put the dry ice on top. I tape the box and then mail it priority (too crazy expensive to mail it overnight!). It's usually anywhere from $15-$25 for me to mail a cake depending on size (usually I mail 8 in or 10 in).

Things you'll need to know!

You have to get a shippers declaration of dangerous goods and fill it out and print in triplicate (I can never remember if it's 3 or 4, so usually I do 4 just to be safe!). You can find the form online, and some come with instructions to tell you how to fill it out. There are only a few blocks you fill out on the whole form. On the box you need to write dry ice, the amt (in kg) and the dry ice code (which I believe is UN1845...but double check cause I'm going off memory!) and you need the dry ice sticker on the box. I also make sure to write on there this side up, fragile etc, but have had one cake delivered upside down, and one delivered on it's side. The one that went to PA had a little smoosh damage on the side, but still looked ok.

When the cake arrives, I tell people to open it, take out the peanuts and take off the saran wrap but to let the cake thaw iN THE BOX! It's crucial because I did one for my mom and forgot to tell her that and it ran from the condensation...none of the others have ever ran!

Hope that helps!