I am having problems while delivering cakes in the Florida heat. I have the A/C kicking before i put the cake in the vehicle. The windows are tinted, but the sun still shines through the back windows and heats up the cake. I had a delivery Saturday and it was one of the hottest days this year. It was about a 45 minute drive. When I got to the location, the cake had slid (even with cake separators between the 3 tiers. They were 10-8-6. The cake was ruined on one side since it slid and broke some of the bottom tier. The bottom tier was chocolate with oreo cream cheese frosting. I'm thinking the bottom tier was too soft with the oreo cream cheese frosting. I didn't end up charging for the cake even though they were able to eat it. They just couldn't present it as the "birthday" cake. I ran to Publix and purchased a 1/4 sheet cake and GAVE it to them. (This was someone I work with and have know for 7 years) I was able to take most of the decorations and the "13" I made for the topper and put it on the Publix supermarket cake for them to have at the party. Please help! I need ideas of how to keep the cake cool while delivering in this horrible heat and humidity. 

AAs a New Orleans girl...I understand your frustration...unfortunately in cases of buttercream I have switched to an all shortening version during the summer months...creamcheese frosting I will only do if travel time is short because my recipe requires refrigeration...now I have heard of people adding everything from cornstarch to meringue powder to stabilize their icings in this heat and humidity...but no matter what I would always have some amount of sliding and oil leaking with any butter in my recipes during these months...Hopefully someone else can bring more ideas to the table :-)

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cakeballer85: are you using high ratio shortening or Crisco?

ARight now I'm using Crisco...I'm planning on trying out the high ratio though just to see the difference

In my opinion, the only way to travel is with a cold cake.   My cakes sit overnight in the frig...I then go from frig to chilled vehicle.    A soft cake...is a dangerous cake..in any temperature..in my opinion.    If you deliver a few hours before the function...by the the time they cut it..it will be back to room temperature.  I would never, ever travel with a room temperature cake.     I guess I'm assuming your cake was not cold...if it was..then I don't know what happened.    I only use a high ratio-all shortening butter cream.   I used to use 1/2 & 1/2...it's just too damn hot here. 

AYou should be boxing the cakes. And yes, deliver chilled cakes. I time my deliveries so the cake comes back to room temp by serving time.

I used crisco, the vehicle was cold and the cake sat in the fridge overnight. The windows are tinted, but the sun was still shining thru. 

AYou should box the cake for sanitary reasons. Blocking the sunlight is only a bonus of using a box.

A

How much air gets to the back of the van? Have you ever felt how hot it is? I'm not sure how to fix that...my husband holds all of our boxed cakes in front of the blowing AC...like ddaigle said its just too hot here...How much shortening? 100%? because even just a little butter can cause meltage...does your recipe crust? I have never had a crusting, 100% shortening buttercream slide or weep in our heat and humidity...otherwise I then might have to question the support structure used

Wow Irish....That's a shame.   My windows are tinted and I even bought those little window blinds for baby's.   I crank my AC for at least 20 minutes but I never feel it is cold enough.   I want a vehicle where I have AC vents in the back.  I have noticed that I am having much better success all around with the high ratio shortening.   I'm telling you..once you use it you will never go back to Crisco.   I used Crisco for 4 years....never again. 

i pre-chill my car and then travel with the cake in a new cardboard brown shipping box. I plan out what side of the car the sun will be shining though for the majority of the drive and then put the cake where it will get as most shade as possible. I am usually driving west for deliveries, so that helps quite a bit.

For long distance deliveries, I have built a false bottom, half-box for the box to sit into that i have lined with ice packs and beach towels, creating a chilled box around the box containing the cake.  I do not use an all-shortening recipe because of heat, though in AZ we only deal with high heat and unless it is monsooning, we have not nearly the humidity that other parts of the country get. 

A

I'm on the other side(Nature Coast) of FL and this heat has been crazy! I only use high ratio (and indydebbie's recipe) for my buttercreme especially this time of year. I just took 2 cakes to family events-2 hour drive for us. As above, cakes in refrig until car has been cooled (in garage-out of sun). I use "moving" boxes to put cake in and...purchase dry ice which I put in the corners of the boxes (just small chunks), close them up & hit the road! 1 party was Saturday & the next was Sunday-both outside and both cakes made it thru perfectly, they were "warmed" by the lovely sun and sat in the shade at both venues for several hours before being served. Sunday's cake probably wouldn't have lasted much longer though!