Have any of you experienced care package senders figured out a way to safely send pre-iced cakes or cupcakes long distance? I could send D the cake, frozen, and the icing in a tub and let her do it, but my thing is cake decorating so I’d like to do it myself, if I can. I’ve got a couple of months to figure it out.
@sseamom You need to put those cake decorating skills to work at sugar cookie or shortbread cookie decorating. That’s what I do when the urge to be creative strikes. 
They hold up so much better and stay edible longer.
Good advice, Doschicos. I was going to suggest sseamom book a plane ticket.
For the record, I found cupcakes went over much better. There are many cupcake places in Cambridge.
@sseamom: I have seen this done – there are cake/cupcake containers that sort of encapsulate them… I just have to try to remember what they were called. They do exist, though. There are high-end bakeries that use them to ship their goods.
Military mom blogs have lots of details about shipping care packages. Cake in a jar, etc. Maybe that could work?
@sseamom - I just googled and found a video that suggested completely freezing the frosted cupcakes with a lollipop stick inserted in each one. They were in a plastic container with room for twelve cupcakes. The lid part had twelve “domes.” The lollipop sticks were to keep the frosting from getting smooshed while traveling. Hope you can make it work! Apparently this is how Georgetown Cupckes ships theirs.
ETA: I found some on Amazon. Oasis Supply was the brand. Good luck!
Yay, @Hoggirl! That’s exactly the container I was thinking of.
Amazon is the Google of the product world, it simply has everything. I wondered how long it would take for someone to find a product there that worked for the latest care package shipping challenge. Not long
I have used a company called Wicked Good Cupcakes to ship to a family member. They make cupcakes in a jar.
For all of these you may want to check with your school’s mailroom to see how packages are handled, especially if your packages can’t handle sitting in the sun or cold for a long time. D had a centralized mailroom and got a text if she had a package; S’s set-up was less centralized and seemed more hit or miss. And when he was at a fraternity, forget about it.
One daughter has the worst mailroom in the world. I sent 4 kids packages directly from Popcorn Factory. Two got them on Monday, even though that was a federal holiday. I think each dorm had an address and UPS could deliver directly to the dorm. Niece in an apt got hers on Tues. D at ‘bad mail school’ got hers on Friday, and even then she called to ask what I’d sent to see if it was worth trudging across campus to pick it up. If she didn’t get it on Friday, she’d have to wait until Monday as the mailroom was open business hours only. I sent other mail to the school that was returned to me, even though addressed correctly.
Second year I just sent everything to her boyfriend’s apartment.
Thanks, guys! I am off to research the possibilities!
@sseamom Let us know what you find. I just invested in some Greek letter and mascot cookie cutters and I’d love to be able to decorate the cookies.
@EllieMom - I have a friend who is an excellent cookie decorator. She had previously used buttercream frosting to decorate her cookies, but taught herself how to do royal icing. I have no idea how hard that is, but the stuff she does and the level of detail she can achieve is exceptional. She did tell me it takes 12 hours for the royal icing to dry. I think she just watched YouTube videos to learn.
The problem with royal icing is that while it’s lovely to look at, it dries HARD. That’s what makes it appealing for shipping. It’s simply not the same as a nice, soft, TASTY buttercream. My buttercream is the whole point. But for cookies, shipping might be a challenge. The cupcakes in the dome containers with the lollipop sticks might be exactly what I need, though.
My experience has been that my son never ate most of the stuff in the school sponsored gift packages the school tries to guilt you into buying. “Don’t let your son or daughter be the only one without a care package!” haha. Plus he had to walk some distance to the residential life office to pick it up when they were open and then carry it back to his dorm. So I made my own goodies and occasionally sent stuff I bought on Amazon (using Prime’s free shipping!).
I think it’s highly individual. With one kid, I think it’s going to be pretty much straight up shipments of one or two favored baked goods that hold up well with age. With the other kid, well, I need to wait and see, but if camp is any indication, there’s a pretty wide range of acceptable options, including complete nonsense. But I’ve looked at the prefab stuff and meh.
I do like the idea of holiday themed stuff, though. Just some sort of small item to connect them back to however you celebrate at home so they know you’re thinking of them.
Something I send frequently is pumpkin bread. My kids love it. I ship it frozen and its actually better after a few days.
^I like that idea. Ha, if I sent pumpkin bread, my daughter would be shocked. I haven’t baked anything in awhile.
Ooh, good thought. My kid might actually like that, too.