hey all,

i have to travel with a wedding cake for almost 3.5 hours. any suggestions on the best way to travel with it? should i go ahead and stack it? preference in fondant vs buttercream? any help would be appreciated!

thanks,
rhonda

I traveled 3-4 hours with my nephew's wedding cake. No special travel treatment .... A/C set on normal so that *I* was comfy; no cakes in coolers. The most "extra" I did was put them in a cake box. I assembled it there. Outdoor wedding .... it held up fine. (but my icing does well in hot weather).

indydebi, do you share your icing recipe???? I'm in NW Florida...hot and humid!!!!

I never stack a cake before arriving at the site. Traffic mishaps, minor or major, are always a possibility. (Color me sissy.)

ok, thank you ladies!

I never refrigerate my icing or my cakes.

See JanH's post in this thread on the science of water activity and how sugar and milk stablize each, ergo it will not spoil: http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-657206-.html

I never knew the science behind the milk/sugar thing until I came to CC. All I DID know was that when I was growing up, every mother, aunt and gramma that I knew kept their cakes on the counter, not in the 'frig.

it just never occurred to me to put it in the 'frig, simply because I'd spent 30-40 years NOT refrigerating cakes or icing with no negative side effects or problems.

Some cakes have to be stacked before delivery if they involved detailed work at the borders, etc. If so, just make sure you have a center dowel....if its tall, occasionally I even build a stand with a central pole support to thread the cakes up over top of that so that its firm. (I have a cake that is going to be nearly 2 hours away here in a few months...and its a pretty tall design that involves different sized tiers and also involves bottom borders that hang down...I'll have no choice but to build a center stand and stack for delivery.)

I know many people disagree but I do love refrigerating my cakes to make them firm for travel. My cakes are always moist and very delicious, never dry. I keep the car cool as well to help slow the warming process and to slow condensation in the summer months. The refrigeration has never ruined one of my cakes, fondant or buttercream, and it has never ruined the flavor or texture either.

Its whatever works best for each person I guess....as long as the end result is right, then however you get there can vary.

Ugh...just thinking about driving for 3.5 hours makes my stomach churn! i would assemble on site if at all possible

Use SPS!!! This will allow you to assemble before you leave. Or, if the cake is going to be more than 3 tiers, I would assemble to bottom 2 and then the rest on site.

I also would refrigerate before leaving and then run the AC all the way there.