Hey All!

I'm making a wedding cake for a friend of mine (why yes I'm a very generous friend) and I need to drive it to the venue which is out of town. It's around 2 hours away. The cake is 3 tiers, I'll be assembling on site, so I have 3 cakeboxes.

Now I've read all over the place that "pack it up and crank up the A/C" well my problem is I don't have A/C in my car.

I will not be renting a refrigeration van or anything.

So any helpful tips are wonderful. The wedding is May 20th.

I will also have 2 other people in the car with me.

Final question, when I assemble the cake, there will be a fondant ribbon border. How should I set this up? Should I roll out my fondant, cut the ribbon strips, and then re-roll them in (wax? parchment? saran wrap?) paper? Then assemble the tiers then wrap the ribbons around to hide the connection points (and any lifted fondant from assembly)?

Thank you for any and all help!
~Shadowess

Having a cake fall apart in the back of a hot car is horrible trust me! Borrow a friends car if you can if not my suggestion would be to freeze the iced cakes with no decoration on them unstacked in your car , I wish you luck . I am in NC and would not try this at all .

I wouldn't even consider delivering a cake in a car without A/C

Although no AC is an issue, there is a way.
First, your cakes should be boxed and refrigerated for as long as possible.
Go to your home improvement store. Buy a panel of sheet insulation (there's the blue sheet and a foil backed white sheet. Either is fine). Determine the size that you need to accommodate your cake boxes. Then have the store folks cut the panels the size that you need. You can tape the panels together with duck tape. Essentially, you'll be making a large chest. Remember to allow for the fact that your butt joints add to the dimensions. This will be important for the lid. Tape one side of the lid to the chest. On travel day, you will insert your cake boxes and include as many frozen gel packs as possible in the 'chest'. Duct tape the whole thing closed. Try to place the chest in the center of the car; not in the back near the window. This will keep the cakes away from the wheel wells and vibration. It will also keep the container away from the heat generated by the windows. I delivered a four tier cake, already stacked and decorated in a similar container 13 hours to New Orleans. The cake was still cold when we arrived!! Good luck!

I must assure where you live it is hot and maybe humid or you would not be so concerned
I have delivered many, mamy cakes w/o the use of air conditioning.....b'cream cakes....in CA.
As DDiva said, make yourself a box/chest. I have used just cardboard boxes larger than my cake box(es). Put your cake box(es) in a big plastic/garbage bag. Use gel packs OR fill large ziploc bags w/water & fz. Surround the wrapped cake boxes with them.....maybe even put some under it (if you can get it to sit level/smooth) - enclose all this in the oversize box/chest. Cover it with towels or *lots* of newspaper to help keep it cool longer.

heh I suppose I should have mentioned, I'm near Toronto, Ontario (canada)

I am posting to save DDiva's instructions to my saved posts. I will be transporting a wedding cake this summer 6 hours and think she's got a great tip! Thank goodness my car has A/C, though. Good luck, OP!

DDiva, thanks for the clever idea. I've gone out and purchased some stuff and I'll try to remember to take pictures and share with others.

I bought some of those insulated metal bags, 2 of the boxes fit in it, the larger tier I'll have to tape some together. I got some of those cooler packs and some ziplocs (so they don't leak on the boxes.)

I'll might try a tester this weekend then revamp if I must for the wedding.

Thanks!
~Shadowess

The A/C went out in my delivery van and I just didnt' get it fixed for a couple of months because I was too busy. I think much of it depends on the type of icing and mine holds up very well in summer heat and humidity. I've never had a melt down on any of my cakes. Even when I have working A/C, I NEVER crank it up super high. I never even pre-cooled it .... just loaded the cake, jumped in the front seat, turned on the key and took off.