If you've ever shipped a cake ... have you ever used dry ice in the packing? I have an order that needs to be shipped (and the customer is WELL aware of the dangers of doing so.... she's letting me experiment with it) and we have a dry ice plant here in town and I can buy dry ice from them very very cheaply.
Any other shipping recommendations or heads ups?
Okay, so I made a sculpted volcano cake...and inside, I placed a small glass bowl. When everyone was gathered to sing Happy Birthday and cut the cake, I dropped a couple of chunks of dry ice down in there and added some hot water...and man, did it ever SMOKE (or technically, vaporize)!! It was awesome.
It's so much fun to play with. Be sure to save some for yourself when you ship your cake! 
Oh my goodness...a volcano cake is the perfect cake for your first sculpting job! Just stack smaller and smaller layers on top of each other with buttercream in between, chill the cake in the fridge or freezer for an hour, get your serrated bread knife out, and carve away! You can definitely do that!
Your kids will be so in awe of your cake powers when that baby begins to smoke! LOL
Oooh, we have Halloween coming up, too. Lots of opportunities of to do smoking cakes if you participate in that holiday. 
I had alluded to this in a previous post, but there are rules set by DOT for shipping perishables with dry ice. You can see more information at the following two sources:
http://cpa.utk.edu/pdffiles/cpa81.pdf
Information about dry ice
Yea, Sherri - I just posted a question about doing a volcano and using dry ice. No responses - but your info answered my question. I need to make a volcano cake topper for a Hawaiian wedding cake. I tried a glass with dry ice but couldn't get it to "smoke" enough. I think the glass is too tall. I am going to try a small bowl. It sounds like you have to keep adding dry ice and hot water to make the "smoke."
Hey, Trina!
I have only shipped a cake one time (big disaster) and was also interested in using dry ice. I checked with my shipper (Mailboxes, etc.) and they said there are laws regulating how much dry ice you are able to use inside a sealed box. The limit is 2 pounds. The reason being is because when it "melts" it becomes a pressurized gas inside of the box and is then considered "explosive" and may even mark the box as such.
So, he tells me 2 lbs. of dry ice can melt fairly quickly...matter of fact, it would probably be melted sitting in their hot store before the carrier even came to pick up the package. I chose to ship without and the cake sat at their store for 5 hours before they moved it....so the dry ice would have been completely useless. I also think there was a premium charge for sending the package with dry ice in it.
Shipping the cake is horribly expensive too (It cost me $90 to send a cake from Ohio next door to Pennsylvania). They'll mark the box "perishable", "this side up" and will refuse to sell you insurance on it. My cake (doweled in 4 places, covered in fondant, etc.) was a mess when it arrived...my cousin said it CLEARLY had been upside down and the box was smushed on the corner. She told me it was a good thing that I included a picture in the box of the cake so they could see what it was SUPPOSED to look like. 
So, I personally had a very negative experience, but I have heard of others who have had success- Dang, I'm so jealous of them 
Hope I helped (at least a little bit!)
Michelle
I have taken some cakes with dry ice on a 6 hour trip before and it worked wonderfully. Kept them frozen for the whole trip. I got a bunch and wrapped it in a couple layers of newspaper and put it all around the cakes in a plastic bag and still frozen cake at the end of our trip. I don't know about shipping though and like was mentioned there may be some hazard if used like that. I know we got some super expensive steaks but I don't remember how they were packed. I know they were in a thick styrofoam cooler though. Maybe some place like Pack n Send could give you the needed information. I hope it travels well and be sure to mark it "this end up" and perishable on the box.
evelyn
my cousin said it CLEARLY had been upside down
What?? Upsidedown????
I wanted to ship a simple sheet cake from Ohio to Gorgia. BUT not if the cake will end up upsidedown!!
Did you use UPS or the post office....?
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