My DH always delivers things to his office. He is fairly careful and knows how much time and effort I put into my cakes. I did a cake for an "outsider" who just happens to be a party planner and guess what...yep, on the way in the office a truck pulled out in front of him and he slammed on the brakes. Bratz cake slid onto the floor. He was a block away from the office and stopped to pick it up. The only thing messed up is the bottom border. I'm not there and have no idea how bad it actually looks. He just says "it's not that bad". Upon sending pictures from his phone, it IS that bad. I would never deliver a cake to anyone (especially a PARTY PLANNER FOR GOODNESS SAKE!) that the borders were smooshed or missing (because they are under the cake now!!!).

I haven't talked to her yet, but I'm hoping the party isn't until tomorrow and I will be able to fix and redeliver. We are a one car family for now, so I can't run in and fix it before she gets there. BOY do I wish I could!!! I told my hubby I need to teach him to do borders and send him with a pastry bag when he leaves. He is very upset but I am horrified. I guess I don't need advice, just wanted to tell people that would understand.

We live 15 miles from town so I send cakes with my husband sometimes and I always worry about that. I suppose I should think about teaching him too.
I hope it turns out okay.

Sorry Hope everything turns out well for you. That sure is nice DH delivers the cakes mine is too scared to do so. LOL

I feel your pain! It must be hard not being able to zip over there and fix it before she knew!

I very rarely let my hubby drive or take a cake. When he did I almost passed out on the spot. We drove to Tulsa with all my cakes for the show and I cringed a zillion times!

I did find that I only put cakes on the floor of the car or in my back hatch on my CRV. I have a piece of 1" thick foam with no skid shelving stuff and it stays put very well!

Sorry for your troubles!

It's funny....my husband's "not so bad" does not equal my "not so bad". I love your idea about sending him armed with his own pastry bag. I hope it all turns out okay in the end!

Angie

I'm so glad the cake was the only one injured. Easier to repair than a DH! lol

Parable-you are absolutely right! When the phone rang so early I picked it up and said "WHAT HAPPENED-are you okay?!" He said, "I'm okay but I might not be when I tell you this..." LOL

I'm still anxiously awaiting a phone call...

My dtr recently got married and my sister in law and I did her cakes. We did 4 seperate cakes, 14 in, 10 in, 8 in and 6 inch all with basket weave. Now the cake stands were gratuated in height and went on tubes. So on the bottom of the plates on the 10, 8 and 6 is the lip where the tube goes. We had to transport the cakes from Jersey to Pennsylvania to the hall. I bought bubble wrap to put in the bottom of the boxes and my friend with a van offered to drive us from point A to point B. I was sitting in the front seat and hubby was in the back keeping watch over the cakes. Well the cakes were tetering back and forth and we were driving about 15 miles an hour with people flying past us and giving us hand guestures. I was freaking out and kept asking my husband if the cakes where ok....feeling like I was going to throw up the whole time. When we got there and got the cakes in the hall I totally lost it and started balling my eyes out! How stressful was that. We also made a half sheet of carrot cake and every bit of our cakes went that night. All in all is ended up as a great success!

I hope DH gave the truck who pulled out in front of him a well deserved cussing out!! I'm sure your husband felt terrible about what happened. All will work out in the end. Give him a few border lessons this weekend and a hug from all of us for happily doing deliveries.

I have similar disaster stories one involving cake and one involving cookies when I had DH deliver for me although he really tried to be real careful I was still horrified when I found out that there was damage to the cake I don't care how minimal he thought it may have been. Presentation counts for alot. I am usually a nervous wreck if I send something out that I am not delivering myself. I hope all of your hard work is still taken into consideration and all works out fine.

Let me tell you my horror story. This was my second wedding cake, the first I delivered in 3 separate boxes 55 miles all by myself. This second cake was different story..It was for my 70 year old mother in law who was getting married after being alone for 12 years. I did a beautiful 3 tier, the middle tier stacked on top of the bottom one. My husband said he will drive............Big mistake, 2nd mistake, I learned real quick that you do not try to hold a cake in a box in the middle of your back seat. At one time I looked down and the cake which originally had started with about 3 inces all around had only about 1 inch on the back side. I panicked. By the time I got to the reception an hour and a half early, my mother in law was there. No one else could have a mother in law like mine, all she could say was how it's okay honey. I just cried because I worked so hard on this cake for her. I pretty much had to put the cake back together again. Those whimsical tilting cake everyone is making, I made one without even knowing. HA HA. You learn real quick that you don't hold a cake and you don't drive fast. My husband was watching ACE of Cakes show with me the other night and he said yep that guy can carry 8 wedding cakes in the back of his fan without boxes because he didn't have a yelling wife with him. HA HA.......

Well, I let my husband deliver a wedding cake to a couple that was going out of town to get married. The couple was a friend of the family and the wedding cake was OUR wedding gift. Well, it was a small wedding with immediate family only, so about 20 people so I figured nothing could go wrong. He was delivering the cake to the couple and they were going to take it out of town with them that afternoon. WHY OH WHY did he put the cake on the front seat of his car?? WELL! Needless to say, the cake never made it to the couple who only lived about 10 miles away.

LUCKILY, the parents of the groom were not leaving until the next morning which was the actual wedding day, soooo I was able to stay up that night and make another one. It was a two tiered basketweave with a flower drape, so nothing too hard but still...who wants to do that all over again!

Amen on the thank goodness that no bodies were injuried!! My DH has never delievered alone but he has driven on all my wedding cake delieveries and is extremely cautious, as was your husband also, I am sure. Accidents do happen!! One of the best things that my Wilton instructor told us was that to always transport at the very lowest point of the car. So all my cakes travel on the floor!!

I was just able to resolve things over the phone. She was very understanding and knows things sometimes happen. The party is tonight so I won't be able to fix anything. I told her the cake was no charge and she insisted on paying half anyway. I'm glad she's understanding and such a nice person...not a party planzilla!

My husband is beside himself. We will be going for steak tonight. I wish the cakes could travel on the floor, but we have a small car and the larger ones don't fit. We'll be putting extra non-skid mats on the mats we have down to level the seat though!

Thanks for all of your support!

The other day I did a pumpkin cake for a friend (a freebie because I wanted to try one) and I wasnt really happy with the way it looked but she still wanted it....so I delivered it to her.....it was about a 30 minute drive and after about the first 15 minutes (with two kids in the car) I had totally forgotten the cake was in the back--we were also meeting her for lunch so I suppose I thought I was just lunching! (I have a blazer so it was in the back in a rubbermaid box with non-skid shelf liner) but I was not at all driving carefully! I had zigzagged through a stretch of highway that could have easily toppled my cake!

At any rate, when i finally remembered that I was carrying a cake I panicked, but couldnt very well stop and check it out on the highway....it ended up being totally fine....but trust me I HAVE NO IDEA how!

OK since everyone is telling horror stories. Years ago, I was helping a friend out that owned a bakery. His decorater had to go out of town, so he called me to help.When I got there on Friday AM, he had 25 custom orders and 3 wedding cakes. He had all the cakes baked. I told him to start icing cakes, since that was all he could do.I started to decorate... and decorate... and decorate. By 9 AM Saturday morning, my hands were giving out. I finished the last wedding cake which was a 6 tier center pole cake with 4 satillites, all basketweave. He loaded up the van and started out to the wedding location, while I finished up the last few orders. About 20 minutes later I get a call and someone pulled out in front of him and he did a U...ee in the middle of the road.Needless to say, the cakes had some major damage. He came back to the shop, and I thought I was going to cry, my hand was killing me and now I have to try and fix this cake before the wedding started. Well we finally got it done and he took off and make it to the reception with 15 minutes to spare. I was so tired by the time I left I could barely stay awake. To top it off, I woke up the next morning and my thumb was killing me and it looked like it was dislocated, sure enough it was. Nothing much they can do except put it back in place. It bothered me a long time.

sounds like something that would happen to me which is why I always deliver my own cakes I do not trust anyone else. Always feel relieved when they are out of my hands

OMG--What IS it with the men driving, anyway?

On the huge wedding cake in my gallery, DH decided he'd drive us (myself, the 13 year old, and dear cake) to the set up site.

DS is holding the groom's fondant cake on his lap in the front seat, beside DH. Said groom's cake makes it just fine...no issues.

But, DH is a policeman, too--only with a bit less fortitude than myself when it comes to red lights!

Each layer is in a cake box (I didn't know to put gobs of tape in the boxes to keep 'em from sliding) and none of them have borders around them. So basically, each cake is sitting on slick cardboard on slick cardboard!

GAH! He sees a red light down the hill (!) and decides to cuss it really good---and then stop. OMG---I was almost in tears, literally--by the time we got the 40 miles to the reception site. One of the bottom layers had smashed into the side of the box and the "leaf" on the inside of the box (the tab you pull inside of box while folding it) had gone completely inside the cake!

Boy was I glad I had my "repair kit" with me. But the weight of each cake had caused "waffling" look to the buttercream. Even though I'd doweled the crap out of each cake. One cake even SHIFTED, and was LEANING to one side. I thought it was hugely noticeable, but no one ever said anything about it. That cake almost killed me. It was a LONG time before I was ready to do another one, too.

I never did tell my DH how it made me feel that he drove that way--but he's not driven any more of my dear cakes, either!! LOL

--Knox--

So its not only me that feels sick and nervous as hell if someone else is delivering the cake
If they decide that they will pick up the cake from me, instead of me delivering it - i know its then out of my hands and their responsibility, but I still feel so stressed out until I hear it arrived safely and was a success.

Tip - I think its worth the extra time and effort in delivering the cake ones self!!

Jan

The non-slip shelf liner stuff is the best to keep cakes from sliding around (and it's cheap and reusable). I use it both under the box and sometimes in the box (under the cake plate) to keep the cake away from the sides of the box. Of course, that doesn't keep the cake itself from sliding off the plate or board, but it helps a lot!
I don't have a DH yet, just a DBF, and he refuses to drive when we're transporting cakes because he doesn't want to be blamed if anything happens.

My pirate cake was a near delivery disaster! I was meeting my customer in a city about 15 minutes away. I was nervous because a) it was a shaped cake and b) it was so tall that I couldn't close the box, so I put the cake and the box inside a huge cellophane bag to protect it.
On our way to deliver the cake, DH decides we need to stop by his parents...who live in the country! We drove 4 1/2 miles on gravel roads, my knuckles were white and I am sure I had a vein the size of France sticking out of my forehead! The cake made it to the city just fine.....and from the city my customer took it another 45 minutes or so and said it survived!

I fear deliveries now. . .

I have one that will make all laughjavascript:emoticon('') I made several welcome home baby cakes for a DF and the party was out of town - down country roads with cattle guards everywhere! At one point, being such a nervous wreck I had DH (who was driving of course) pull over so I could get out and check the cakes in the back of the burban - I opened the window, climbed onto the bumper and leaned in to check the cakes. Just about that time a very large semi was coming down the hill and just before he passed us he honked his very loud air-hornjavascript:emoticon('') He hit the next cattle gard so hard the semi jumped. Well when I got back into the car my DH was laughing so hard tears were streaming down his face. The cakes made it okay and everyone enjoyed.

So far I haven't had any disasters, but I also haven't had that many to deliver. The ones I did deliver, including the 2 or 3 tiered stacked cakes were fine. I always place the cake on a plate that is as long and as wide as the cake box, that way the cake doesn't shift around. I also always place a non-skid rug on the floor in the trunk under the box and another one inside the box under the cake plate.
Than I surround the cake box with other boxes all around till the trunk is full. That also prevents the cake of shifting around.

This summer I had the bright idea to take a cake cross-country when we were going to stay with my best friend. He drove, I drove, cake was fine for 12 hours. I fell asleep while he took up driving again. Wake up to him driving the Indy 500 down the twists and turns in the mountains at 80mph! "What? It's been fine so far." Uh huh. Next stop, checked again, and the layers had slid apart, dowel sliced through, writing illegible. He has gotten to drive with dc in the burb since, but he goes 5 miles on the straighaway only. Any hills or curves are just to tempting to him, so those I deliver!

I don't have a deliver disaster story (yet - just jinxed myself) but I do have an almost disaster. My aunt was a caterering my nieces wedding rec. and as with all family weddings, we all get involved. SOPHIA MOMENT: picture this, We're off to the reception hall to set up...4 cars in line, LOADED. My aunt is in front, almost eating the steering wheel b/c of the items in the backseat. My mom is the passenger holding - at chin level & propped on the dash (seat was too close) the grooms 'death by chocolate' cake. I didn't do cakes then but I'm guessing it was 11x15. A deer runs across the highway and everyone slams on brakes. We pull over to check the cakes and (due to exhaustion I assume) I began to laugh hysterically b/c my mind instantly went to what my moms obituary would have read had the airbag deployed...death, by chocolate! OK, I promise, I'm not that twisted and I only thought that after I made sure everyone was ok..