You may have seen my previous post: “Cakes & Pies in Jars, Oh My! 10 sweets to send to your sweet!”
Jarred desserts and foods are an easy way to send food to someone who lives far away. But if this is your first time sending baked goods this way, you may be a little worried about how to ship them so that they arrive in the best condition possible.
Here are some quick tips to ease your mind. They will help you to properly ship your jarred treats so that they arrive perfectly packaged at your partner’s doorstep.
1. Use mason Jars. They won’t break from the high heat and will bake your sweets just fine!
2. Lubricate your jars with pam, or some other oily substance to make eating your sweet that much easier for your partner.
3. When baking, fill each jar halfway to prevent the cake from baking over the jar top. You want to be able to get the top back on the jar after you’re finished!
4. Though shipping icing with normal baked goods is usually done in a container on the side, jarred cakes can come with the icing already smothered inside them. Just slide the cake out, chop into slices and return them to the jar, placing icing between every layer. Avoid icing the very top layer if you don’t want things to get smudged.
5. If you want to include icing on the top of your jarred cakes, or if you just want to set the cake a little more, you could freeze them briefly and then take them out of the freezer right before you ship them.
6. Vacuum seal your baked goods by topping the jars with lids while they are still hot. As your baked goodness cools it shrinks, which causes a vacuum seal effect inside the jar. Once the jars are cool, you’ll know you’ve done it right if the seal button is down. If you include only the pie or cake & nothing extra, your treat will last up to 2 months unopened. Perfect for shipping!
7. Wrap each jar in bubble wrap and then surround the bubble wrapped jar in packing peanuts to keep anything from breaking. You can never use too many packing peanuts! Dry ice is also a great idea to preserve freshness!
8. Go to your nearest mailing center or post office and ship via next day delivery, or 2 day delivery. While the jars will keep your goodies fresh for a long time, you don’t want to take too many risks. So ship the fastest way possible!
If you follow these tips, you should be able to mail goodies to your partner in a much easier, simpler way!
Sources: saynotsweetanne & beehiveandbirdsnest
I have a question about icing the cakes before shipping. In your post, you said to slide the cakes out and slice them. Put the slices back in with icing between each slice. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but you would have to do this while the cake is still hot out of the oven to get it to seal properly. My question is how do you keep the frosting from melting on a hot cake? I would really love to do this, but I don’t want to make a mess on my first try. Thank you!