Not a good combo I suppose. I need someone- anyone's advice. My daughter is having her birthday party at a waterpark in a few weekends. We are planning on doing swimming, then hot dogs and then cake. I have to haul her cake with us to the park, about an hour drive. Then hang onto it while the kids get their fill of water and sun. My question is....how in the world do I keep this sucker from melting all over the place?? Do I put it in a container and in a cooler?? I know I can't leave it in the car. It's been a hundred degrees or hotter here almost everyday. I don't know what to do. She hasn't really set her heart on any sort of design, so would fondant be better than buttercream? I have no idea what to do.......

I live in Louisiana and I would pack a small ice chest and do not use cream cheese in your icing.

I have always put the cake in a container with just an icy pack in the ice chest to keep it cool not cold.

Thank you for your help CajunDaisy. That's what I was thinking, just wanted to see what everyone else thought. I'm sure that will work just fine

If you're doing the container idea, place that container in an insulated bag. Sit the bag in the cooler surrounded by bags of ice. I don't know how big your cake is, but it works for taking small cakes to the park. The cake stays a certain temperature in the bag, with the ice around it.
Even those small styrofoam ice chest may work. Just place cake in stro chest, place chest in center of cooler with lid on, surround with ice, cover cooler.

I haven't had a cake to melt as of yet. I would not use butter in the icing if you are being out all day. Make the buttercream with just shortening.

Not sure about the fondant melting...???

So you think it would be okay without having to go in a cooler if I use high-ratio shortening???

Yes I would love to know the answer to this as well and also know how fondant does in heat. Im traveling 3 hours with a cake and its going to be a hot one.

or you could do a cookie cake with minimal icing.

Another idea might be to see if the waterpark has a fridge where you could store the cake. If they have lots of birthday parties there, they might be used to the request.

Thank you all so much for your responses. I'll call the waterpark tomorrow to see about a fridge. If not, then I'll see if I can get the birthday girl to go for a cookie instead.

Still wonder how fondant does with heat though..........I may have to do an experiment this weekend for my 1 year anniversary with DH He loves being my guinnea pig

I'll share my fondant experiment with you. I don't have a picture of the end result though.

I made an 8" cake, iced with Indydebi's buttercream (the best I've found for heat and tastes delicious too) and covered with marshmallow fondant. I kept it at room temp and then drove it 30 minutes across town in a car with no AC at 3 pm to see how it would hold up. This was in the beginning of June and it wasn't quite so hot as it is now. The cake held up beautifully.

Two weeks later, I made an 8" cake, iced with Indydebi's buttercream and covered with marshmallow fondant and drove it across town at 4pm. By the time I got there, the cake had developed a large bulge near the bottom of one side. When we cut into it, the buttercream had all fallen off of that side and made a bulge at the bottom. The fondant was fine, it was just the buttercream that was suffering in the heat.

Cookies with marshmallow fondant hold up fine in the heat. You can add RI details too.

Two weeks after my experiments, I borrowed a car with AC and delivered a wedding cake 50 miles out of town. It held up perfectly.