Mailing Cupcakes

Ah, the United States Postal Service.

On the one hand, our local post office is uncommonly friendly. Apparently my mother sends so many packages to my sister (at the Air Force Academy) and now my brother (Kuwait) that one of the clerks recognized my maiden name and described my mother and younger sister in detail to me.

And when I went to send these cupcakes last Tuesday, the lady who was ringing up the packages cheerfully told me that I was sending cupcakes ALL WRONG and that I needed the long mailing box and not the tall flat rate box. That resulted in me waiting until Wednesday to send them, but it also meant the cupcakes would get less jostled in the mail, so, worth it.

On the other hand, even when they ask if there are baked goods or perishables inside, they aren't very gentle with it after it leaves the facility. Perhaps there is no perfect AND cheap way to send cupcakes, but this method worked well enough, and with a few tweaks next time, maybe my brother will actually get cupcakes that don't look smashed. 

Now, I am no baker. When I make baked goods, my first priority is taste, not appearance. I even took that stance with my wedding cake, turning down bakers who made gorgeous cakes that tasted like cardboard until I found my dream cake (and it tasted AMAZING). So when I was sending cupcakes, my first priority was freshness, and appearance took a backseat.

My first half-baked (haa!) idea was to stick toothpicks in the cupcakes and put them in groups of four into disposable tupperware. But this idea was nixed when I experimented with the four cupcakes reserved for the guys. I toothpick'd them, packed them into the container, then turned it upside-down. The result was anything but neat.

Nevertheless, the first order of business in sending cupcakes is freezing those bad boys, so I stuck the tupperware in the freezer while I brainstormed. 

Ah, frozen and stacked in all their glory!

... Unfortunately, I hadn't thought to take out the toothpicks before freezing them, so those suckers were stuck. And the more frozen they are when they go in the mail, the better, especially when icing is involved. 

Cling wrap is essential for freshness. Next time, I might add a layer of tin foil for structural support. 

And then you know those super adorable plastic cocktail cups? Yes, this was my great idea! The thought behind it was that the cupcake wouldn't slide too far in the cup if the box was inverted, but unfortunately, the toothpicks created a sort of axis for the cupcake to turn on when upside-down, so it still didn't go as planned. I stand by the idea that this will work when toothpicks are not involved.

Then I banded the bottoms of the cups with elastic bands. (My nail polish in this picture is Essie's "Tart Deco," but I never got a picture of my manicure before it chipped so this is the best shot of it.)

And then after my false-start trip to the post office with a too-tall box, I packed these babies in and was very, very proud of myself. Yep. It's the small things, you know.

Like I said in the last post, I was unconcerned about the appearance of the icing since I knew our lovely Florida weather would melt it down and smear it all over the cupcake for me. One of these days I'll bake cupcakes for my sister to take to school so that I can truly show off my decorating skillz. With a Z.

But... I should've warned the cupcake recipients that the cups should be inverted when they're getting unpacked:

Photo credit: @misssara11

In hindsight, it totally makes sense. If I were unpacking a box that had plastic cups, I would set them right-side-up too. That's my bad. When I send out a new batch, I will include notes about which side of the box should be up and how the cups should be turned.

So for next time:

• add tin foil

• NO toothpicks

• include note about cup placement

In all likelihood, I will post about this exciting process again the next time I endeavor to send cupcakes through the mail. I know, you're on the edge of your seat!