I have chilled and it seems to make the cake sturdier.. or at least I think so.. I use SPS so its already sturdy but with that far of a drive I thought chilling it would keep it cool.

I am delivering my hot pink, zebra striped, polka dotted fondant 3 tier wedding cake to the venue that is an hour away. Wonder if it will be better to chill for the delivery since it will be in the 80's tomorrow. The wedding is outside too. Which I have already warned her about!

Yes, it will be better to chill in that heat!

No. I don't even use the air conditioner in the van half the time. My cakes are never even refrigerated.

Just how "sturdy" does a "just chilled" cake actually stay? If a frozen cake can thaw in 20-30 minutes, wouldn't a "chilled" cake get to room temp in about 5-10 minutes? Since I don't chill cakes, I'm curious how it works.

I myself was mainly thinking of the heat. I don't want the fondant to start sagging. Since its already going to be outside I thought chilling and transporting in air would help to not create any issues.

I'm not sure I would. You should take into account humidity. Sometimes when a cake with fondant decorations has been chilled, as it comes to room temp. the fondant starts to sweat and the colors may run. Seems like more so when the humidity is up. I'm speaking from experience. I did white cake with purple dots once and chilled it, when it started comming to room temp. the purple color started running off onto the white icing and I was trying to clean it up before my cust. got there to pick it up. Freaked me out a bit. It was the middle of summer though and quiet humid.

I refrigerate all of my cakes, but it has nothing to do with trying to make them sturdy for delivery. I simply do it because my fillings require it.

Now you have me thinking.. with the hot pink and black I'm worried it will run. That would be a nightmare.

Memphis is very hot and humid. I chill all my cakes. I keep them 'climate controlled' during delivery. Corrugated cardboard moving boxes make great insulation if the cake is already cold.

I know what sizes fit in my car. And for me there's no worry about the color running because the temperature changes are gradual when using the box.

If need be I wire ice packs (those blue ice packs that you can re-use) into the corners of the box--I wrap them in a paper towel to absorb any moisture and place them in plastic bags and wire them into the corners of the box. Will keep a cake perfectly for hours in blazing noon sun outside. I mean I seal the cake in there--tape it shut.

I would not dream of an hour's drive without climate control protection for my cakes. Not to mention "sun screen'--fully enclosed in a box.

Indy, cake slices can defrost in 15 minutes. But it takes longer for whole cakes. Chilling really adds an invisible cohesivenss that I depend on for delivery. I mean what's firmer, room temperature cake or cold cake.

Chilling thouights for you (agh!!!)

I chill my cakes and then blast the A/C in the back during transport. Unless its a super long delivery, nothing even wiggles. Well except when I hit the potholes and poor repair jobs and torn up roads in the area, depending on which township actually puts tax dollars towards the roads. haha.

k8 I'm the same way....have to chill mine! Delivered one room temp a couple years ago because at the time I was afraid the dark burgandy fondant would run onto the white....and by the time I arrived, stuff was cracking. I support pretty well I think, but the vibration from the car always seems to weaken a soft room temp cake. For me. I know Indy is the cake whisperer and they do whatever she asks, LOL, but for me, I have to chill mine to make them behave!

And I'm too stubborn to get into SPS and stuff LOL especially as most of my cakes end up being 3D anyway and I have to figure out custom supports each time. So I figure whenever a wedding gets thrown in there, I can support it using "my way" anyway....big bubble tea straws, dowels, and a nice cold fridge!

Funny this subject should come up. I have a cake delivery on Sunday that is about an hour & a half away (I was going that direction anyway). It will be a 3-tier fondant covered cake. I will be chilling it because of the mousse filling and have my car AC blasting the whole way. Crossing my fingers it gets there ok, the roads to the turnpike, and the turnpike itself, are not the smoothest.

deb

I never chill.

Jen

How fast do you all drive when you're delivering a tiered cake?

Indydebi - me too! Just do the speed limit...........unless I see a bumpy ride ahead, then I slow down even more............nobody likes it they can pass me! My cake is more important than anything they are doing! LOL!

Deb

I have a sign that says "Caution: Wedding Cake Delivery in Progress". I keep it taped to the inside of the back of my van door. When I have a cake in the back, I pull it off of the door and plop it in the back window.

I'm sure people look at me funny when I'm on the way back to the shop, after dropping off the cake, and the sign is still in the window......and I'm driving like a bat outta hell!

LOL!!! Hey Debi, it's no different then when I pull over to let a police cruiser with his sirens/lights on go by me and up ahead I see him turn into a Dunkin Donuts (not to pursue a criminal either)!!


I also have a sign for my van and I NEVER refrigerate any of my cakes.

Sylvia Weinstock (I heard) delivers her cakes cold. Duff obviously does not. I've done both from work situations.

Anybody know any other of our elite caker's delivery methods?

I just may have to make myself a sign! This cake is bigger than I thought (3-tier topsy turvy cake). At this point I am only going to put together the bottom two tiers and put the top on when I get to the party site. Otherwise I would not (even with help) be able to carry this moose anywhere! and yes I still plan on chilling, mostly because it will be warm here tonite and have a mousse filling.

deb

Just an fyi on the sign. You wanna be all paid up on your commercial car insurance when you put it on there. Just an insurance thought for you.

I just dropped the cake off! I did chill it for about 4 hours and that thing did not move a bit. It is a around 80 today and is humid. I delivered an hour away and it was still cool to the touch.

Debi is absolutely correct!! In my former life I was an insurance agent. It is the use of the vehicle that determines the insurance coverage. The sign is really not a big deal.

If you have someone deliver for you in your vehicle, you need to have business insurance.

If you use that vehicle to buy supplies , deliver or anything else related to a business; you need to have business insurance.

Should there be an accident or other issue while the vehicle is being used to conduct business, your company has the right to decline payment. At the least, they may pay the claim and then drop you all together.

It's not worth the risk.

A few years ago I had to deliver a wedding cake to New Orleans (a long time customer was getting married there). It's about 12 hours from here. I built an insulated box from sheet insulation that I bought at Lowe's. Determined the size needed, had the store folks cut the pieces for me. Used white duct tape (so it would look nice ) to tape it together. Made a platform from another piece of the insulation that had 'legs'. This created a space that I could slip the frozen ice packs into (enclosed in plastic bags and wrapped in foil).

Inserted the cake; taped that puppy shut. The cake was refrigerated prior (have to here; so much humidity). The cake arrived still nice and cold and without so much as a bead out of place.

I use that box; corrugated moving boxes; or some sort of insulated container to deliver ALL of my cakes during the summer....and I have the ac running full blast. We had 96 degree temperatures last month...that's right, April. No way I'm delivering anything other than a chilled cake in a container that will keep it chilled.

I am new so forgive what may be my ingonorant questions but here goes...Does putting your cake in the frig make it less moist? I had my first wedding cake this weekend and had to drive an hour away. I live in Mississippi where the humidity is horrific. The cake made it fine but I had a lot of cracked icing. I had great support(so i think) and used crustin bc icing would putting it in the frig have helped with the cracked icing???

Let's see. Yes the frige pulls moisture out of the stuff inside there. But the cracking is probably due to the bouncing on the way over I would guess.

I mean there's ten thousand variables though.

So you delivered it room termperature? Or it was chilled?

I highly recommend the boxes for you.--Ok I'm getting my threads mixed up here--brb...