I have talked about this before, where my friend peeled out of a parking lot, forgetting the cake was in the back of her car, sent the top tier flying, and then brought it back to me wanting me to fix it.
Well, I just found out that a second cake I did last month crashed. My sister in law picked up the cake and transported it 80 miles from here. When she got there she discover that the cake on its cardboard circle had slid off the base and smashed. I hadn't heard anything about the cake, they didn't say how the baby shower went, I emailed them and they said everything went great, so I was so relieved, I know they didn't want to tell me because I had told them to be so careful, and they knew how upset I was with my other friend, who wrecklessly smashed the cake. But, my friend told me that it had happened to them also. So now i'm wondering if they are wreckless while driving, or if I didn't do something properly. I put a large bead of frosting on the bottom of the cardboard circle and attached the cardboard to the cake plate. But they said the whole cardboard and cake slid off the cake plate, I have never had this happen before, since I glued it down with frosting.
I'm starting to think that I should only deliver the cakes from now on. I have never had it happen when I deliver, so I can't quite understand. I am very careful though. It just made me so upset that it happened twice in 2 months, I have turned down 2 wedding cakes, and a birthday cake just because of this. Hopefully I'll get over this, if any of you have any ideas of what I could be doing wrong, please let me know.

I'm not sure it is anything you are doing careful to someone used to transporting cakes means something different than careful to people who aren't. I don't like to deliver but I usually do simply because when people pick up the bigger cakes, they have a bad tendancy to crash so sorry to hear this happened.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to refrigerate cakes that other are going to transport.

I have a feeling they are driving like they normally do, and expect the cake to just sit still. I normally deliver tiered cakes, but on occasion have had the person pick them up to take to their destination (usually they are going out of town). What you need to make clear to them, friend or not, that once the cake leaves you - they are on their own. THEY need to be responsible and either have someone hold the cake or (here's a thot) DRIVE CAREFULLY.
Make sure that if you do start delivering ( I deliver ALL my tiered cakes since I do set up at the site) that you charge a delivery and set up fee. I don't give them the option not to choose it. And I've never had a complaint about it. With gas prices like they are, and them not knowing how to put it together.....
It's not your fault, so just try to shake it off and start charging a delivery fee! You can do it!

It doesn't sound to me like this crashes are your fault--I'm sure those drivers just had NO CLUE about just how careful they needed to be while driving! My husband likes to drive me to my deliveries and I always say to him "put on your hazard lights and drive like there's a newborn baby in the car!"

But if you have someone else deliver a cake again, what about if you put the whole cake on a cake drum and then put a final dowel through the whole thing that goes right IN to the cake drum--like Sugarshack does in her stacking video. That would give you a little more assurance that it would stay on the board at least...? Just a thought

Are you placing a large middle dowel through the cake in addition to the "glue"??? I find this helps tremendously!!!!

So is it the cake board/cake sliding off of the base cakeplate/drum? Why not use some RI to hold it instead of buttercream?

It might not be your fault, but maybe since it has happened twice now you might need to go to extra measures to be sure it doesnt happen again.

If the cake arrive safely when you deliver and they're assembled the same way then it's more than likely their driving. "Careful" to them probably isn't the same as "careful" to you.

I had a small two tiered cake picked up about a year ago. The party was 1/2 hour away down a windy, hilly road. I received a call 15 minutes later asking if I had an extra cake - sorry, I don't keep an extra turquois with black cake sitting around - because the cake "just collapsed". I knew better but offered to go and see what I could do. She refused. Well, just two weeks ago I ran into the girl and her sister - she introduced me to her sister as the cakelady that made the cake that collapsed - but tasted great. Her sister said "Oh, you mean the cake that you dropped?" She said "Well, actually I just bumped the curve when I got home and it slid right off of the board - then when I tried to fix it it fell over. I just bumped the curve." I just smiled and walked away - I knew it didn't "just fall over".

You did what you should have done - you can't hold their hands to the venue.

Debbie

I caution people to drive like there's a loose egg rolling around on their dashboard to give them a visual of how gentle to be. I mean you have to be careful over an 80 mile journey with a cake. Was it even level in the vehicle in the first place? Was it out of the sun the whole way?

I have a big pad of post it note type paper that will cover a car window and block the sun off a cake--I mean tape and a piece of newspaper will do the same. I place the cake in their car and fold up their jacket or whatever they have available to give me to level the seat. You can ask a regular customer to keep a roll of paper towels in the car--works great to level a car seat out. Empty Coke cans work good in some cars.

You are not doing anything wrong, I can understand how upsetting this can be but put this behind you. Take the new orders that are coming in. It's in the past now. Go forward and just be sure you continue to inform people to be careful--which I know you were already doing. Once they pay and take the cake they can do anything they want with it.

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This is so funny--we did a frog cake for this guy, y'know, a flat frog not standing up. Put it in a half sheet cake box. He paid, went to open the door to leave, slid the box under his arm like a stack of books so the box was completely sideways under his arm like a football--had to have scrabbled the stuffings out of the little frog. We all just froze in time--stood there our mouths open, our hands outstretched, we sucked alll the air out of the room--he just marched right out and we never heard a word from anybody. I guess the frog in a blender look was what he was after.

I know people don't understand how careful you need to be with a cake in the car. The first cake was ruined because she forgot the cake was in the car and was driving way to fast, she admitted it to me, after I had told her many times to drive slowly.
But the second cake I'm not sure, I haven't ever put a dowel down thru the cakes before, and the royal icing would be alot better glue, so I think I will do that the next time someone else transports the cakes, thanks everyone

I agree that people generally perhaps don't have a professional idea about how careful to be when a cake is in the car, but I do beleive most of them have some idea, especially if the second set of people you made the cake for knew about the other situation...that makes me think they would have been EXTRA careful.

My thought is once the cake is in the car, the buttercream is no longer the thick adhesive it was because the temperature starts to go up, causing it to become a little more melty and causing the cardboard to be slippery. I'm assuming you're referring to the cardboard under the bottom tier sitting on the cardboard or wooden base, by the way.

I'm thinking glucose would be the best adhesive in this case. We use glucose all the time for that and it really holds almost better than glue!

If, however, you're talking about the cardboard under a tier that sits on top of a tier, then I don't know.

Shakti has a point there with the glucose. Also an ancient secret revealed, The Great Wall of China was actually put together with piping gel. Another winner in the 'ain't never gonna come loose' contest of life.

I use a small piece of non-skid mat - cheap kind isn't very thick and does the trick. I've had several cakes ruin the boarders because the cake slid (I think I'm a little heavy on the breaks - so is hubby) - even with the buttercream - Probably would have helped if I fridged it first.

Judi

I use non skid mat for under the boards and under the box in the vehicle. I keep a roll on hand for when people pick up party cakes too and personally place a piece in the vehicle then the cake and try to convey to them the importance of driving carefully.

Debbie

The non skid mat is a good idea, I use it all of the time in the car, but next time I am going to put it in between the cake cardboard and the cake base, that stuff really holds good. I thought about it, and they arrived sooner to pick up than I thought, so I didn't do it. I was going to make every precaution with that cake. I did glue it down, but I was going to pull it up and put the non skid mat in there instead. I do think maybe the heat might have had something to do with it, she just placed the cake in her trunk, with no air conditioning back there. It wasn't hot out though.

I did use non skid mat between the cake board and the drum on one of my last wedding cakes - I just made sure to tell them it was there so they didn't think I left it there by accident!

Debbie

You know what I do??? I put icing on my cake circle and put the cake on that but when I go to attach that to the decorative cake board/base I put a little puddle of hot glue down and then set that bottom cake on there. The glue holds that puppy in place and when it's dry if you just run a sharp knife under the cake circle it will pop right off and you can just peel the hardened glue off. Works like a charm. Most of my cake boards are disposable anyhow so I don't generally have to worry about take them off, however there have been a couple of instances where I put the cake on off centered and wanted to take it off and start again, so I know how easily you can get them off of there too. maybe you can try that?

Try SPS, seriously!

We transported a 3 tier wedding cake in the back of a pickup truck for 3 hours, and I told hubby to drive like normal (lots of bumps, hills, and curves)

Cake arrived safe and sound.

I placed the cake on nonskid, then on top of mattress eggshell foam, then sit in a large clean shipping box

When it's in the back of the car, I don't use a box.