[postimage id="4558" thumb="900"]This is the top tier of a 2 tier cake shipped from Orlando, FL to Brentwood, TN. Each tier was shipped in separate box, with fondant silhouette topper in with bottom tier. Cakes were square, filled with mousse, frosted with white chocolate buttercream, then frozen. Once frozen, they were covered with wax paper cut to size, then wrapped snugly with cling wrap, and secured to larger cake board with icing. Each cake was put in cake box about 4" smaller than shipping box, & voids were filled with bubblewrap. Dry ice is limited to 5# / box by regs, & I used 8# total btwn 2 boxes. I lined the inside of shipping box with large plastic trash bag, & placed a block of dry ice under cake box that was also sealed in plastic & filled in shipping box with foam shipping peanuts. I placed small blocks of dry ice along each side & top of cake, filled in with shipping peanuts to secure & closed plastic liner bag. The inner cake box was not moving around at all. The box was sealed & shipped overnight by USPO, set to arrive day before wedding to allow for thaw & to give time to find another cake if it got trashed.

Next day, mother of bride tells me top tier arrived just perfectly at 10:30am, earlier than estimated; PO says 2nd box will be there at 3pm. But when I got home in Orlando at 3pm, there was the box with topper & bottom tier of the cake, upside down in postman's hands. Seems they thought I might have used more than 5# dry ice, which they determined magically without opening the box, but I was 100% sure it was less than 4#. But the ice was now gone, it turns to gas. So my son & I had to fly across town to get new dry ice, unpack, repack & return to PO by 5. We made it with 10 minutes to spare. 

Next morning the MOB calls to say cake is there, both tiers are undamaged. They removed all but wax paper & refroze cakes for about 30 minutes; they stacked the tiers, then wax paper came off cleanly, & then added topper.

It was a nerve wracking experience but it turned out OK in the end. However, I don't think I'll ship another cake for a while, until it's much cooler outside.