How Do I Ship A Cake And How Much Is It To Do That?
Decorating By berryblondeboys Updated 31 Jul 2007 , 10:26pm by weirkd
OK, a friend of mine wants me to do a cake for her daughter's christening. THey are driving and could pick it up on the way, but I thought I would look to see how difficult it is to ship a cake.
I really have NO IDEA how you would do that and how much it would cost! And how to keep it from being a DISASTER... Though I know people do it!
Can anyone fill me in? I tried doing a search, but didn't find much.
Melissa
Unless is it covered in fondant with no other decorations you should not try to ship it. I have shipped 2 cakes covered in fondant and they had just minimal (if any) cosmetic damage, however, I work for FedEx and have seen videos of how the packages are handled and run on conveyor belts. Your stickers that say "fragile" and "this side up" do not always get that much attention. Also you can't control the temperature. If there is another way, you should NOT ship the cake! (If you do opt to ship it you might want to ship a test cake first to check out your cake packaging skills!) Good luck!
Thanks... it might be better for her to swing by and get it... or I could meet her so that she didn't have to drive through to my side of DC at least.
We'll see... do you think a cake baked and decorated Thursday night will still be good Sunday morning? I also bake/decorate the night before to keep it the best tasting.
Melissa
Well I can tell you exactly how to do this!! I did this last summer from WA to Florida!
First off you will need to make sure that your cake if fully frozen. Then you will need to take it to your nearby Dry Ice dealer. They will have the boxes(complete and lined in Styrofoam with lid) and they will cut the correct amount of dry ice for packing. They will also seal the package for you. Next you take it to Fed-ex. They have all the "food" related labels and instructions you will need. It's a pretty handy process really. But also very expensive!
Depending on the size of the cake. The cake I mailed was a 9 inch double layer "Death by Chocolate" covered in Ganache and Caramel. I had it ready to go in a bakery box(frozen solid of course). Dry ice only lasts for 24 hours so it is extremely important to freeze your cake first.
My cake at the 9 inch size cost $15.00 for the dry ice store, and $95.00 for Fed-Ex. Spendy!
Of course I did send it to Florida too. You can go online and check out the Fed-ex website and download the pricing chart for most everything they ship too. That's what I did.
Good luck to you!
Ive shipped four so far. One of them ended up lopsided and the other three were fine, with no damage. But it costs a bundle because I over-nighted them. You also have to think its hot out now so you might think of dry ice to keep it cold. Packaging it up you want it in something that will minimize any type movement possible. So what I would do is put it in a cake box, put some saran wrap on top then put the blow up packing pillow on that. Seal the box and then make sure that it was cushioned and that the box couldnt shift. Had a ton of this side up only and fragile on it but she's right, they ignore it. Think of Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura as he kicked the package to the door. Its probably not that bad but they really dont care whats inside!
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