I want to send a birthday cake to a friend of mine in Texas. She’s been feeling kind of down and, while I’m sending her a birthday card and a gift, I think an actual cake arriving in the mail would really surprise her and get a laugh out of her. Can you mail a cake by USPS? Would it be better to send it by UPS or FedEx instead?
I have a plastic cake box I was planning on putting it in, but then I realized that the cake would still get josteled inside of the cake box and the icing would get all smooshed. Any way I can avoid that?
Probably the best thing you could do is call a local place in Texas and have them make and deliver one. You could probably mail the cake through USPS (not breaking any rules), but the fact that you even had the slightest hope that it would survive makes me doubt that you have ever checked your mail before.
UPS and FedEx are better, but not good enough. “This side up” signs are not going to save it.
What kind of cake? A decently solid fruit cake should survive, but forget it if it’s a sponge. I won’t hold any hopes for your icing either - unless it’s a simple message and some basic frosting.
Phage is right. The standard way to do this is to find a local bakery and have them deliver it. Many will take credit cards over the phone for this purpose.
Of course it doesn’t solve the problem if you were planning on baking it yourself.
I have received tinned cakes before. All were fruit cakes and quite filled the tin. If you’re sure that the plastic cake box will take the battering it will receive you could pack the cake in with marshmallows. If your friend would find it funny I would send it anyway with a photo of how it looked before mailing to compare with it’s mangled state on arrival.
I really do want to make it myself. It’ll be funner, not to mention funnier, that way. I do hope it can make it there in once piece, but if not, we can joke about it like we do the chococolate chip crumbs she sent me.
I want to send her a chocolate layer cake (her favorite) with just some simple decorations. Think I’m going to try the freezing and dry ice packing, though I think I’m going to send a before picture to accompany it. Thanks for the help, y’all!
Well, my recommendation was going to be to choose a cake type that would travel well, such as a pound cake which wouldn’t require icing.
Since you really want a layer cake, though, I would suggest making the cake, freezing it, and then wrapping it in plastic wrap after it’s frozen, as has been discussed. Having the icing frozen before you try to wrap it is the only way I can see you having any icing left on the cake (and not on the wrapping) when your friend gets it. Freeze it, wrap it, and then immediately pack it in the dry ice and go ship it.
(Or, could you send the icing in a baggie on the side and tell her to ice it herself when it arrives? )
I vote against using the USPS. Last year, I sent my niece a care package at college during her freshman year. I was including some of her favorite cookies, freshly baked. I sent it priority mail, which “guaranteed” me 1 or 2 day delivery (to a state university about a 3 hour drive from where I live.) I got the package in to the post office by 9 AM on Wednesday, to make sure that she would get the package on either Thursday or Friday. The jerks didn’t deliver it until Monday, so she got 6 day old cookies.
(She didn’t complain. I was the one who was pissed off.)
A couple years ago, my parents sent me a frozen pizza from Lou Malnati’s for my birthday, out here in Omaha. They (Lou Malnati’s)used styrofoam packaging, and some dry ice, and shipped it next-day FedEx. The box arrived damp, and the pizza was no longer totally frozen (as should be assumed), but it arrived in good condition as far as I was concerned.
It was really fun playing with all that extra dry ice.
Oooh… 1-800-LOU-TO-GO </unpaid testimonial> You’re making me homesick and hungry!!
You can ship something with dry ice, but be prepared to fill out some hazmat paperwork and pay extra. (The stuff itself will burn anyone that happens to touch it (in case the box breaks open) and the stuff continually releases CO2 (carbon dioxide) gas that can, in a confined area, suffocate someone, or cause a container to rupture or explode.
For air transit, (US Mail) no more than 5 pounds are allowed. More is allowed in ground transit. The container must be double-boxed, with absorbent material to capture all condensation so other mail items are not damaged.
Before you even bake that cake, check with your post office, UPS, or however you plan to ship it.
Have you considered using a waxy coating for the cake…something along the lines of marzipan or a waxy chocolate icing that will harden? If you can manage that and get it in a plastic cake container it might have a better chance.
Ugh i’m sorry I don’t have any “technical” terms for these icings…but you know, it’s the kind you see on wedding cakes alot…not usually meant for consumption rather for decoration.
What about packing it in mini marshmallows? Depending on the size of your box, it might get expensive, but it would be cool. Marshmallows stuck to chocolate frosting would be kinda cool, IMO.
Edible packing peanuts! err, I personally like the packing in marshmellow idea. Simply because if I received a cake in the mail, and upon opening the box I saw a wicked smooshed cake all mangled with little marshmellows everywhere… I would probably die of laughing.
However, you want a real cake there. I think the dry ice packing would be the best solution. Since you do want to make it yourself.
The delay might not be due to the USPS, but to the University. At a lot of schools, all mail goes to a central mail office, who then distribute it to students… And this can easily introduce a day or two of delays. Especially if the university mail office isn’t open on Saturdays. UPS/FedEx might also deliver through these offices, in which case they wouldn’t be any better (through no fault of their own).
I get the impression that the birthday girl in the OP might also be at college. If so, send it at the beginning of the week, and call her to tell her to be on the lookout for a package.
The general rule for shipping food is do what the pros do.
In this case, the pros only ship solid cakes.
I like to send people tortes, 7-layer cakes, for example at Christmas. They are made rectangular and coated with a thick shell of chocolate frosting.
Fruitcakes and others mentioned above work well.
so, in general, if you can’t find your kind of cake in an on-line catalog, like Harry & David’s or Hickory Farms, it prabably can’t be shipped.