I need some advice please. I'm making a graduation cake for my niece, who lives 600 miles away. My sister is driving it there, and has promised to put it on the floor in the backseat with the air conditioning blowing on it to keep it cool. I was planning on covering it in fondant, but suddenly I'm questioning myself. I'm afraid I'm asking for trouble with the fondant bulging or sagging with the long ride. What do you think? It will be a 12" square, with a fairly simple design. I'd much rather do the fondant because I'll be doing a lot of silver on it and I've never mastered luster dust on BC. But, of course, it's more important that the cake make it there without problems. Any advice?
I'm not sure if the bumpy road would be a factor with the fondant bulging but hopefully it doesn't. My only suggestions are:
Always use a stiff dam, even if it is just buttercream.
Let your cake settle overnight before covering with fondant just to make sure.
Make sure the cake isn't facing direct sunlight because the heat could possibly damage your cake.
Good luck =]
Please let us know how it turns out! As we speak, or type, I have a birthday cake traveling 700 miles from Kansas to New Mexico. My dad was here for a visit, and taking it back for my mom's bday. Mine was just an 8" round with BC, but i put it in a sturdy box and put a few of those gel freezer packs in the box with it to help keep it cool. The cake(in a cake box) and the freezer packs were all wrapped in plastic bags to protect from sweating. Good luck to you! Lets keep our fingers crossed for each other!
Well....I think I would cover in fondant. BC sitting in a car, will get all kinds of things stuck to it, the a/c will be blowing bits of lint onto it, dust from the atmosphere in general....crap that flies in when you open the door. And yes, sunlight baddddd.
What is she going to do with it during rest stops? When she goes in to a restaurant to eat? Car off? Car gets hooooot within a minute or two.
Sounds like a long way for a cake to expect to make it unscathed. 
if you can, find you some cheap, thick rubber like pad.. got me some at flea market.... cut out a big square.. then a thick piece of egg mattress pad.. cut out a big square.. i keep these sizes for helping out with small cakes traveling.. so they won,t be sitting right on the floor of the car and it viborating.. am i making sense.. i keep large pieces like this in back of my explorer for larger cakes and wedding cakes,etc. and i lay of piece of non skid stuff, from dollar store.. wal mart on top of this.. works great.. hth
Thanks for all the feedback, love the idea of the eggshell mattress pad, that should help a lot with bumpy roads. As far as the rest stops... all I can say is that I've stressed over & over again to my sis the importance of keeping this sucker cool and out of the sun. I have faith that she'll do her best. I think this cake is a bigger deal to her than to me, even. If all else fails, I'm making a gumpaste figure for the top, so if the cake completely collapses, they will have that, at least. I've never had a chance to make a cake for this niece because of the distance and she's had a rough road getting to this stage in her life...I just want to try to do something special and I don't know what else to do but cake.
abra, I'll keep my fingers crossed for your cake, please let us know if it makes it!
My sister actually took it, I didn't go. They only made quick restroom stops and kept the car running, while they took turns going in. They didn't use the eggshell, we just boxed it and they put on the floor with a A/C vent on it and a pillow on top in an attempt to shade it. She specifically told me that the cake held up well at 78 MPH. 
Good luck with your travels, let us know how it goes!
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