If you've shipped cupcakes or mini cupcakes, please help. Where do I start? Do you prefer the plastic containers like the grocery stores use or do you use the cardboard boxes? Is dry ice necessary? Georgetown Cupcakes charges $25 for shipping. Doesn't that seem high? Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated!
My advice..
There are multiple options/scenarios and ways to go about it. With so many variables from weather, to distance, to packaging, your best bet is to learn from others who are doing this. Order from those places, see what they do, how they do it and and figure out what you can recreate to make it work for you.
I have a cupcake shop and won't do shipping because it is too much:
variables
cost
headaches
and there is no easy answer.
We also don't ship cupcakes, the cost is just too high and there's no guarantee the product will arrive in good condition. I've seen some businesses that do ship cupcakes, and they ship them unfrosted and individually wrapped with the frosting in separate containers, so the customers have to frost the cupcakes themselves.
To ensure freshness you'll probably need next day shipping or 2 day at the most, this can cost in the $50-100 range.
I was wondering about shipping cupcakes too. One of my husbands co workers wanted me to ship cupcakes for his wedding. We told them we could not do it. Could you image 100 or so cupcakes, with dented frosting or just plain melted frosting mess. They would be shipped 4 states away. We told them they would have to be done on site.
To cross state lines when shipping, you must have an FDA license, register with the Bioterrorism Act, have a recall protocol in place, and keep detailed production information on their forms. You also must have FDA approved nutritional labels. FDA kitchens must be separate and have a pricey list of requirements. Failure to follow the regulations results in fines by the feds. Any bakery would have no problem with the compliance, but in areas where the requirements are more simple, there would be a problem. Your state Dept of Ag has the packet. As far as shipping, you would need to comply with the requirements. Since all of the major companies that ship do it the same, I assume that this is the way it is done to comply with the regulations.
I built my kitchen to comply, but when I opened, our inspector was deployed and I haven't re-scheduled the inspection.
A
Original message sent by scp1127
To cross state lines when shipping, you must have an FDA license, register with the Bioterrorism Act, have a recall protocol in place, and keep detailed production information on their forms. You also must have FDA approved nutritional labels. FDA kitchens must be separate and have a pricey list of requirements. Failure to follow the regulations results in fines by the feds. Any bakery would have no problem with the compliance, but in areas where the requirements are more simple, there would be a problem. Your state Dept of Ag has the packet. As far as shipping, you would need to comply with the requirements. Since all of the major companies that ship do it the same, I assume that this is the way it is done to comply with the regulations.
I built my kitchen to comply, but when I opened, our inspector was deployed and I haven't re-scheduled the inspection.
The statement about labels is false, unless Georgetown Cupcakes is breaking all those rules.
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