I have been making my sister's birthday cakes for years and she just moved away. I'm really upset that I can't make her cake this year, so...I have decided to mail her a cake. I am going to make it square and cover it with fondant - then stencil a design on it with chocolate so there aren't any parts that stick out. I am making a simple two layer cake and I will dowel it. Does anyone have experience with mailing a cake? Anyone have any ideas? Thanks!!!

from what i read on here very, very few (maybe even just one) people have accomplished this. "fragile" markings do not mean it will be treated as such.

i know it sucks not being able to make loved ones' birthday cakes (especially when you have the PERFECT design and you've wait forever to make it), trust me. i know. but in the end the expense and hard work in trying to package and mail it off is rarely worth it

Just the thought of it scares me to death. I had someone contact me a while back, they saw one of my cakes on here and ask if I would make them one and ship it to them in NY. I felt bad but had to decline.

I've mailed a cake through UPS before. A friend of ours wanted to try to see if it would work.

The UPS lady surrounded the cake with peanuts; some type of thing that would stabilize the box AND put fragile all over the box. When my friend received it, he said it had a crack down the middle, but it still tasted yummy!!

Oh, it also cost him 100.00 just to have me ship it!! (overnight, box sized, etc.)

the word FRAGILE..........doesn't mean a thing to the USP, USPS and so on. I mailed a cake once. Had this end up and everything. It was crumbs when it got there. Just wanted to share.

I did a forum search and there is a thread about this called mailing a cake.
I don't know how to post links, sorry!

A couple of people do this successfully khalsted and kinicto.
Maybe you could pm one of them and ask how they do it. HTH!

I have mailed a cake... a small 6-inch round covered in fondant (the cake and board were covered with one piece of fondant -- I was trying to make the cake "stick" to the board as much as possible). I blew up baloons and put them around the cake (simple flowers laying on top as the design). The box was the exact size of the board and just as tall as the cake (no wiggle-room). Put all the "this end up" and stuff on the box. It made it in one piece. HTH

TammyH

I mailed a cake (boat shaped) it was a small 8 in square in the base and the "boat" on top was like 6 in long, it was covered in fondant, and then wrapped the whole cake in plastic wrap, I use a small cooler , cake first and then dry ice on top, put everything inside another box, mailed it through USPS, it arrived perfect!!!! Good Luck!!

Mari

Blessings

I have never mailed a cake myself, but have gotten well over a hundred requests to do so. So I checked with my local post office and the rep. strongly advised me against it. Here is my experience when I checked into shipping cakes ...

He told me couriers dont care about the "fragile," "glass," "this side up" and any of the other stickers that are pasted all over the box. He said couriers have a lot of boxes that they want to get rid of and they shuffle those boxes around as quickly as they can to get their job done as soon as possible. He suggested if I were to ship cakes I should only ship non frosted cakes and put the frosting in a separate container for the recipient to frost when they get the package.

I have not given up, but I have put it on the back burner for now. I dont know if this will be helpful to you, but just wanted to share my experience in regards to shipping.

Thanks so much for all the advice... I'm thinking I am going to give it a shot - nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that... I am wondering if I should freeze it and then send it one day mail - maybe if it is really well wrapped it will stay frozen and then won't crumble as easily... I will also check out that other forum and see what I can find there. I did do a search before posting this, but obviously I didn't do it correctly since I didn't find the other thread. I'll try again.

Thanks again for all the info!

My "baby " moved to Chicago to live with her dad and attend college. I had a huge melt down as I realized that she was turning 18 and i wont be able to make her special cake. I remember ONE time NOT making her birthday cake ever...I decided to look into shipping . How about Fed ex or ups I just can't imagine her turning 18 with out a homemade cake from ME!!!! any suggestions would be so nice.. even a better cake recipe one which would travel better.   thank you. 

cut out cookies that look like cake

Kittimami,

There is a thread titled "Shipping A Fondant Covered Cake" that has a few ideas to try.  It does seem to be hit and miss as to whether a cake gets there in tact regardless of who the carrier is.  http://www.cakecentral.com/t/759372/shipping-a-fondant-covered-cake#post_7476905

I have successfully shipped 4 cakes through the USPS.  They were different sizes, but all of them were chocolate mud cakes and covered in fondant.

Good luck.

Teresa