I'd been reading online about the best way to mail a cake with the best chance of it actually arriving at its destination intact. Looking for an excuse to give it a try, I mailed my best friend a birthday cake. Since she's dieting, I suppose it's more that she's MY best friend rather than me being HER best friend; or I'd have sent her a bag of broccoli or something to support the weight loss effort, but isn't cake a lot more fun than produce?

A buttercream-covered cake would be a hard thing to mail, so I made a White Chocolate Love cake torted with buttercream, covered it in fondant, and decorated it with royal icing piping. I painted on a blue stripe and gold lettering and accents with petal dust and luster dust made into a paint by mixing it with Everclear. The following day, I wrapped it up for a loooong ride through the U.S. Postal Service.

I wrapped the cake in plastic wrap, packed it around with "air pillows" and packing peanuts, put it in a Priority Mail box and took it to the post office.

Even though every side and the top of the box was clearly marked in black Sharpie "Fragile Perishable Keep Upright" with an arrow to make sure everyone could tell which way was "upright," the postal worker still had to ask if it was perishable. "Yes," I told her.

"What's in it?" she asked. I wondered why she needed to know specifics...  Isn't it enough that it's fragile, perishable, and needs to be kept upright?

"It's a birthday cake," I replied. She looked at me funny. But she got out her rubber stamp that said "Fragile" on it.

"Is it some kind of pound cake or something?" {stamp.  stamp.  stamp.}

"No, it's a regular cake." {stamp stamp.  stamp stamp.}   "It's fondant with royal icing.  It should be fairly bullet proof."

"Will it be edible when it gets there?" {stamp stamp stamp.  stamp stamp stamp.}

"It's for my best friend," I answered. "She'd eat it anyway."   {stampstampstampstampstamp}

So, with the box severely labeled and stamped to within an inch of its life, it leaves my hands and begins a 1737.8 mile journey from the American South to New England.

Two days later, right on Amy's birthday, the cake arrived! Hooray! It did not arrive completely intact, but hey, put ME in the back of a mail truck for two days and see what I look like at the end of it.

In future, I'd put the cake on a smaller board so that it has less room to slide, put a layer of plastic wrap, then a layer of "air pillows," then another layer of plastic wrap to hold the air pillows in place to further prevent sliding, and then pack the whole shebang in more air pillows and packing peanuts.

Happy birthday, Amy. Many happy returns!