Ship grandma's cake?

[Janet H]

I need some advice! I need to ship a cake to arrive on a specific date for my kids Birthday. He is a college student and each year begs me to send his favorite cake and this year I am thinking of trying.

The cake is a chiffon style cake made in a tube pan and pretty dense; along the lines of a pound cake. It's iced only with a dusting of powdered sugar and was my grandmas recipe (which means she probably got it out of a book somewhere). The cake has become my families standard favorite b-day cake. How can I pack it so that it won't crack or disintegrate if dropped?

 

[Uncle Bob]

Leave it in the pan --- Bake two....Send one to me as a test!!!

 

[Callisto in NC]

I agree to ship it in the pan and include the topping in the package. Or if it's round see if you can find a tin to ship it in. It might still crack a bit, but it won't go all over the packaging.

 

[licia]

I sent a pound cake to my son in law when he was stationed in Germany. He had to eat it with a spoon. I thought I had it packed securely. He said it tasted delicious.

 

[Callisto in NC]

I shipped cookies, banana bread loaves, fudge, and cocoa mix and the bread made it safely via UPS from North Carolina to Pennsylvania. I wrapped the loaves tightly in plastic wrap and they arrived in fine shape.

 

[Katie H]

You could ship it in its pan. Just buy an inexpensive one that you can give away.

However, if you don't want to ship it in the tube pan, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, but put a plastic or styrofoam glass in the center so it won't break.

Then, put the cake in a box as close to the size of the cake as possible, making sure you pad it with paper or some other packing material so it doesn't bump around in its box. Put that box into another box that's about 3+ inches bigger all around. Fill the space pretty firmly between the boxes with packing peanuts or bubble wrap. Seal and ship.

 

[Callisto in NC]

I find those air packets much more forgiving and steady when shipping. It's like whatever you are shipping is floating on a cloud and it doesn't have such a hard impact on the item being shipped if the box gets bumped.

 

[Alix]

Another vote for shipping in the pan. And avoid UPS. They have garbage customer service in terms of "on time shipping". FedEx has been much more customer friendly IMO. (I'll tell you the story over a glass of wine sometime. )

 

[Callisto in NC]

Another vote for shipping in the pan. And avoid UPS. They have garbage customer service in terms of "on time shipping". FedEx has been much more customer friendly IMO. (I'll tell you the story over a glass of wine sometime. )

LOL ~ my experience is exactly the opposite. You couldn't pay me to ship FedEx. I guess we all have our shipping companies of choice.

 

[Alix]

Canada vs US perhaps??

 

[Callisto in NC]

Canada vs US perhaps??

Could be but I also think even in the US we've all had our positive and negative experiences with both. Where my dad lives FedEx makes excuses not to go all the way down his road "truck too big, weather, was there really a road?" but UPS knows the area and sends a van size truck to his area so he always gets our deliveries. My guess is that UPS is more familiar with home delivery than FedEx.

 

[Janet H]

Here's the recipe for Grandma O's Marble Cake

2 C sugar
4 eggs separated plus 1 extra egg white
1 C butter
2 squares melted bakers chocolate
1 C 2% milk (room temp)
1/4 C vanilla yogurt (the real stuff)
3 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour (no-sift)
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
dash of nutmeg
1 tsp fresh grated lemon rind

Assembly:

• Cream butter, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla & yogurt together in large mixing bowl.
• Mix flour, salt, nutmeg, baking powder together in small bowl.
• Whip egg whites to med peaks.
• Combine dry ingredients and milk into butter/sugar mixture, by thirds till fully combined.
• Fold in egg whites.
• Combine 1/3 of batter with melted, cooled chocolate.
• Add lemon rind to other 2/3 batter.

Into the pan:

• Butter and flour tube pan (make sure it has a removable bottom) and pour half of white batter into pan.
• Add all of chocolate batter on top and then add the remaining white batter.
• Make sure no chocolate batter touches side of tube pan as it will burn a little.

Bake approx 50 minutes @ 350.

Let stand for 10 mins before removing from pan. Once cooled, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Serve as-is or with a rasberry mint sauce.

 

[Callisto in NC]

Do you have to refridgerate the cake? There's a lot of dairy in it.

 

[Janet H]

Do you have to refridgerate the cake? There's a lot of dairy in it.

I never have... still alive after all these years. It actually never occurred to me.... hmm...

 

[Callisto in NC]

I never have... still alive after all these years. It actually never occurred to me.... hmm...

I was just wondering for shipping purposes. What you could do is ship it with dry ice and it will be solid the whole time.

I ship bake goods every Christmas. I'm still wondering how far you need to ship it.

 

[Janet H]

I was just wondering for shipping purposes. What you could do is ship it with dry ice and it will be solid the whole time.

I ship bake goods every Christmas. I'm still wondering how far you need to ship it.

I need to ship it about 300 miles - not too far. I expect weather temps could be near 70 F.

 

[Callisto in NC]

I need to ship it about 300 miles - not too far. I expect weather temps could be near 70 F.

In that case I would say UPS ground (should be almost next day delivery), wrapped in lots of plastic wrap, suspended in the package on the air pillow packing material and you should be fine. I ship a lot of packages.