Yep, the title is right. I transport my cakes in a car. I know, I know, everyone tells you not to do that, but sometimes you just make do with what you have. I’m here to tell you that you CAN transport a cake in a car.
Last year, my SUV blew up. Not the entire thing…just the engine. When I say blow up, I mean smoke coming out of the car. Yeah, it was intense. Replacing the engine was even worse. I had to auction off a kid to do it. (Ok, not really. I had to auction off two.)
Earlier that year, I had to replace the air conditioning. In Texas, the temperature can get above 100 degrees outside, so when I would get into my car, I could feel my lips melting off my face.
After dealing with those two issues, the final straw was my driver’s side window had stopped rolling up and down. That was it! I was tired of paying a high car payment in addition to expensive repairs and having to buy the expensive premium gas.
I thought about it and decided I really wanted a car again and not an SUV. I had already decided to slow down on cake orders and concentrate on getting my blog up and running. Plus, I’d have a lower payment and get much better gas mileage than the 15 mpg I was getting with my SUV.
I actually measured the trunk of this car before I purchased it to make sure it would be deep enough to put a two tier stacked cake in it. I also made sure I could fold down the entire back row of seats. Since it gets super hot here, I need those seats to fold down to open up the trunk to the rest of the car where the A/C can get to it.
My point is, if you only have a car to transport your cakes, don’t automatically think it can’t be done. If you’re waiting to start taking orders until you get better transportation, don’t! Take a look at what you have and see how it can work for you.
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So here are some Do’s and Dont’s for transporting cakes in a car:
DONT’S:
- Don’t set a cake on your seats. Even if your back seats fold down, you might be tempted to set your cakes on them. You don’t want to do that. Most likely they don’t lay flat. Even if they do, there is probably still a space between the folded down seats and the back of the front seats. There’s potential for the cake to slide and tilt. The same applies for the front seat. Seats aren’t level and if you have to slam on your breaks, well, then your dashboard is going to be covered in buttercream.
- Don’t put your cake in the trunk if it’s warm outside and your back seats don’t fold down to open up that area. I’m sure that’s a given, but I’ve actually had to tell some clients that when they were picking up a cake from me.
DO’S:
- You DO have a better chance of having a level surface if you put the cake on the floorboards. Push your front seat all the way back. Add some non slip shelf liner (the rubber stuff that’s in a grid pattern) on the floor and set the cake on that. If you feel it’ll be too tall, just take the tiers separately and put the cake together at the venue. You can set the other tiers in the back on the floor boards. You just want to make sure your car is very clean and that your cake is in a box. I also add a fluffly towel between the floor and the non-slip liner, then I add the cake on top of that.
- If your trunk opens up to the rest of the car, or it’s always cold in your environment, you can travel with them in the trunk. I have a few tricks for that below.
- DO put your cakes in a box. Since they will be traveling on either your floorboards or your trunk, you want them protected from any dust. For my tiered cakes, I just use a regular moving box that I get from Wal-Mart in the office supply aisle. I just estimate how tall the tier will be and then make sure the box is a bit WIDER than that. Notice that I said WIDER and not taller. I turn my boxes sideways so that the opening is on the side and not the top. Then all you have to do is slide your cake in and tape up the side of the box when you’re ready to move it.
Here are some tips for transporting your cake in your trunk:
First you’ll want to make sure your trunk is flat. My trunk has a rubber ‘thing’ on the bottom of it that has ridges, so I added a non-slip liner, a thin towel and then a flattened cardboard box over that to make it a smooth surface.
Next I add a non-slip liner across it and then a big fluffy towel.
Now here’s my secret weapon: You want to lesson the amount of jolt the cake could receive from riding in the trunk, but you don’t want to add any ‘bounce’ to it. You just want something that will absorb a little of the shock. So…..drumroll……..my secret weapon IS…….. A YOGA MAT! Yep, simple, but I think it really makes a difference. It adds just enough cushion, but it doesn’t add any ‘bounce’ like foam might. It also acts as a non-slip surface. PERFECT!
So here’s the thing about my trunk…it’s a deep trunk, but there’s not a very big opening. The box will not go into the trunk without tilting it here and there. Well, that’s just not going to work when you’ve got a cake in the box that shouldn’t be tilted around and honestly it’s so heavy at that point, I couldn’t be moving it around like that anyway.
What works for me is that I place the EMPTY large box in the trunk on top of the fluffy towel and yoga mat. Then I grab the tiered cake and have someone hold the flaps of the box open for me while I set the cake in it. Then I seal up the box with tape.
So here’s an anecdote for ya: This past week, I made my step-son’s wedding cake. It was 85 degrees outside and partly cloudy, so I was a little lucky with that. I made sure that my back seats were folded down and had turned on the A/C full blast until the car was about as cool as it could get.
I stacked the two bottom tiers, set the empty box in my car on top of my fluffy towel and my yoga mat. I had one of the kids hold the box open for me and I placed the cake inside and taped up the box. I then placed the groom’s cake beside that in a box of its own.
I put the top tier in another box and placed that on the floor in front of the passenger seat on a fluffy towel and non-slip mat. I still had room in the back between the seats to put my emergency kit bag. DON’T FORGET THE EMERGENCY KIT!
I then put on a sweater (cuz that car got cold) and headed off to the venue. I had a two hour drive and I am here to tell you that the cake made it! No bulges, no shifting. Now I WILL tell you that I did put a center dowel in the bottom two tiers because I had such a long drive with it, so look at the structure of your cake and determine the best way to make it as sturdy as possible.
Now I can’t promise you that this method is perfect for every cake you’ll make, or that you’ll never have anyone stop short in front of you or that an animal won’t run out in front of your car. That kind of thing can happen no matter what kind of vehicle you’re transporting your cake in. We all know that transporting a cake when you don’t have an SUV or van is not the ideal situation, but with a little ingenuity and motivation, it CAN be done!
As always, if you have any questions, let me know! If you have more suggestions, I’m all ears. I’d love to hear from you!
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J’aime beaucoup vos tutoriels ils sont bien expliqués et avec beaucoup d’humour. Merci de nous les faire partager.
Merci beaucoup!
Hi. Do you keep your tiers frozen before transporting them? If so, are the decorations on? I’ll be using modeling chocolate and marzipan decorations and I’m not sure how they’ll freeze.
Hi Shireen, I don’t freeze them before I transport. I like to keep everything room temperature (unless there’s something perishable in the cake). Sometimes I will chill the cake in the fridge for about half an hour or so before I transport it though. That just makes it a bit more firm for traveling. I wouldn’t freeze the whole thing before you travel. It could cause a lot of condensation issues. Hope this helps!
Hello Kara,
This weekend I had my first naked cake order. it was two tiers (10 and 8 inch) with sunflowers.
I live in AZ and the weather was around 95% outside. I did transport, on a level surface with a mat underneath each tier. However I did not have the cakes in boxes, I think this was my first mistake. When I went to deliver the cake by buttercream was melting, even though I had the air conditioner on full blast. Do you happen to have a good recipe for a sturdy buttercream? Also I did put four dowels in the bottom tier but when I went to stack the top tier on top, the bottom cake feel apart in the back once the top layer smashed the layer. it was just a disaster. Why did my cake crumble like that? I can only think it was the heat. The cake was as room temperature when I went to deliver it. I think I need to use a better buttercream for cakes in AZ and next time I transport I will be using a box.
Hi Marie, I’m so sorry the cake fell apart on you! I know that had to be so disappointing after all the time you spent making it.
First, I’ll give you some tips for a more heat stable buttercream. I do have a post planned for my heat stable buttercream recipe, but I’ll go ahead and tell you that it’s basically my basic vanilla buttercream recipe, but you’ll use shortening instead of the butter. If you can get the high-ratio shortening, it seems creamier to me. When you make this buttercream, you’ll want to add a pinch of salt to cut the sweetness and you may want to add in a bit of butter extract to give it a more buttery taste. Buttercream made with shortening will stand up better to warmer climates than an all butter buttercream. If it’s really super hot and the cake will go outside, or it’s in direct sunlight, then sometimes there’s just nothing you can do to keep it from melting. Next time before transporting, you might try putting it in the fridge about a half hour or hour before leaving…that may help a bit. I try not to get it too cold though because I don’t want too much condensation going on.
As far as stacking cakes go…I like to use the heavy plastic dowels called ‘poly dowels’. You can get them from Global Sugar Art. They have two different sizes that you can use. I don’t use wooden dowels although many people do. Also some people use straws. If you do that, make sure they are the sturdy plastic bubble tea straws and not regular straws as those just won’t work. I usually put more than 4 dowels in my 10 inch cakes when I’m stacking an 8 inch on top of it. I probably use maybe 7 of the smaller poly dowels. If using the bigger poly dowels, I’ll use maybe 4-5. It’s probably overkill, but I tend to go for extra stability. Also I like to insert one dowel (wherever the highest part of the bottom tier is), mark it where it hits the top of the cake, pull it out and then cut all the dowels that same exact length. That way I know the cake will be level. Also did you use a cake board under the top tier? I’m sure you did, but I just like to check. This was a lot of information, but I hope it helps!
Hi there!
This is such an extremely helpful post thank you! I had a question, as you had mentioned the 2 tier cake was secured with a centre dowel. What happens when you get to the venue and you want to attach the 3rd tier? or in addition to that 4th? How do you secure that? I don’t know if you would put another centre dowel?
Also, if you have a 4 tier cake, do you secure 1st and 2nd tier with a center dowel box it, then secure 3rd and 4th tier with a centre dowel, box it and then how do you attach them together at the venue? Any help would be appreciated!
Hi there…those are good questions. When you add the center dowel to a cake, make sure that dowel isn’t sticking up out of the top tier. You’ll want to measure the height of the cakes to make sure and cut it the length you need it to be. This way the tier will be nice and flat when you go to add the other tiers later.
So, for the other cake tiers you’ll be adding later, just stack them when you get to the venue. Make sure the cake tiers you’re setting them on have support dowels in them (but obviously the top tier doesn’t need doweling because nothing will be sitting on it.) You don’t really need another center dowel.
I usually just traveled with the other tiers individually boxed, but you can stack them two by two if you wanted. If I added the top tiers at the wedding, then I didn’t add another center dowel. The only reason I add the center dowel, was to keep the cakes I’d already stacked more stable during transport. Most of my cake orders in my area were for two and three tiered cakes…not four. But if I had more tiers, I would just box up those other tiers individually and just stack them at the venue. I hope this helps!
Thank you so much for your response! One last question sorry, if the top tiers aren’t centre doweled into the other cakes, is there ever concern of them shifting while being moved at the venue? like the top tier all of a sudden falling off of the doweled cakes? does the buttercream/royal icing really hold that tier in place?
Well there’s always a chance of something happening if the cake is moved, but I would normally just set it up where it would stay. It’s whatever you feel most comfortable with though. Personally, I just center-doweled the bottom two or three tiers, then just set the others on top at the venue and on the table that it would actually stay on. I also let the customer know (in my contract) that once the cake was delivered, I wasn’t responsible for any mishaps related to someone bumping it or moving it. I also left instructions on how to take the cake apart and cut it. Hope that makes sense!
That makes total sense, thank you so much for taking the time to respond!!
You’re welcome…happy to help. 🙂