How to Mail Cupcakes

Making cupcakes for a birthday or special occasion is a tasty way to show people you care. You may want to share your homemade treats with friends or family that are far away, but mailing cupcakes is a risky endeavor; the most difficult part of trying to mail cupcakes is preventing the frosting from getting crushed during transport. If you want to mail cupcakes, you will need a little creativity and a lot of luck to get them there in one piece. Add this to my Recipe Box.

Simple Method

Bake your cupcakes the same day you intend to ship to preserve optimum freshness. Frost and decorate your cupcakes as usual, but keep in mind that simpler cupcakes generally travel easier.

Get an airtight food storage container with a lid that is large enough to hold the number of cupcakes you want to ship. Use a container with enough room to fit your cupcakes in one layer. Make sure the container is deep enough that the lid will not crush the top of your cupcakes when you close it.

Place your cupcakes in the plastic food storage container one at a time. This is the tricky part, because you want your cupcakes to be snug enough that they won't move, but not so snug that they are crushing each other. Many small plastic food containers fit four cupcakes perfectly, but you can easily find a container that will fit six or nine. Your cupcakes should be snug enough that if you turn the container upside down they do not fall out.

Close the lid on your plastic storage container. If you packed your cupcakes nice and snug, most of the frosting should be preserved, even with the plastic lid.

Put the plastic container in your shipping box and use crumpled up newspaper to pad the sides. Your plastic food storage container should be snug in the box, just like your cupcakes.

Ship your cupcakes and cross your fingers.

Complex Method

Get a large plastic food storage container with a lid and a thin cardboard gift box of equal size. If you cannot find a gift box of equal size, choose one that is smaller. Do not cut the gift box; the form is needed to keep your cupcakes in place. Use a thin cardboard gift box that stands up on its own and is easy to cut. Use a plastic food container that is deep enough to fit the cardboard box plus the top of your cupcake.

Using a cupcake as a guide, draw a circle on a piece of paper and cut it out. Use the guide to draw equal spaced circles on the top or bottom half or your gift box for the number of cupcakes you want to mail.

Cut the circles out of your gift box with a box cutter.

Place the gift box half in your container so that the exterior is facing up, with space under the circles for the bottoms of your cupcakes.

Put each cupcake into a separate circle, setting it securely in place without pushing. Put the lid on your food container and put the container in a shipping box.