Hello all I am new all the way around, I am new to Cake Central but love the site.
And I am new to baking for large groups of people. I mainly bake cupcakes and make chocolate cover strawberries.
I started my business in Connecticut and now I have relocated to Virginia I am a at home business and have not made it to a store front yet one day. But I have customers that would like me to ship to them back in CT and other states. I would like to know the best way to ship my cupcakes far as packaging them to 1. keep them fresh and safe from messing up during in shipping also need to know this for chocolate cover strawberries as well?
And how do you factor in a shipping price or is it best just to have the customer pay the shipping at time of delivery?
Please help me out someone

I think there are special containers to ship cupcakes. Georgiatown Cupcakes ship and they have clear containers like Walmart but they have a hole on the top of each cupcake cavity...they stick a wooden stick through it and through the cupcake so it doesn't move when they put the box on it. Then they put it in a shipping box
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You cannot ship without an FDA license and no home kitchen can be licensed. If you are caught, it's a federal offense.

Your state Dept of Ag has the information on the FDA license and what is required in the separate commercial kitchen.

Wrong*

Sidestepping the FDA law above, no home kitchen business is allowed to ship across state lines. Only certified food businesses with health regulated licenses are allowed to ship. If you are still in doubt, home businesses should ask their inspector about the selling/shipping policy. This pertains to selling. Shipping your food gifts does not fall under these guidelines.

You would also need to consider the added cost for the packaging and shipping method necessary to guarantee the product maintains its quality, your old customers may not have been willing to pay double the cost vs. local bakeries.

Adding to what Mimi said, the FDA has guidelines for safe food shipping. Following these requirements will insure that your gift will be safe to consume when it arrives.

Thank you for the needed to know information it was helpful so now in order to provide them back home I guess I will need to go back home & bake since shipping is not an option at this time until I open a store front.
thanks everyone