After the continued Covid restrictions keeping us all at home I felt like I had a get out of jail free card recently - a wedding cake delivery and a legitimate reason to leave the county without fear of getting arrested! Road trip!!!!!

And not any old journey either, more than 120 miles and 4 hours into the Scottish countryside with a stacked cake in the boot. Negotiating the winding roads up the side of Loch Lomond, the landslides and potential 60 mile diversion at the Rest And Be Thankful, and the last 15 miles of the journey on a single track cobbly B road in the middle of nowhere (pictured) heading down towards the Mull of Kintyre (yeah I know you're all hearing Paul McCartney and his bagpipes now aren't you 😆).

As the crow flies it's not that far for me, but a straighter journey would have involved 2 ferries, skipping on and off the Isle of Arran, and there is not a chance I would have taken that option for fear of getting stranded with a ferry cancellation, never mind a choppy sea chucking my cake about, so we took the long way round.

It got me thinking about the stress of cake deliveries and the steps I take to make the journey as pain free as possible. Let's face it, it'll never be completely stress free, but it doesn't need to be a completely horrendous experience either. So I thought I'd share a few of my top tips to help make the delivery journey just that little bit easier.

Prepare everything the night before, and I mean EVERYTHING. Your cake stacking and decorating needs to be 100% finished, including taking photos of your cake - last minute additions or faffing on the morning of delivery will only add to your stress. Print out and fill in any paperwork you need to take, including contact telephone numbers, address and directions to your venue. 



Plan your journey and allow extra time. Look at the route and find out if there are roadworks or diversions and account for these. Make sure your car has been filled up with petrol/diesel. If it's a longer journey you're going on plan your rest stops, especially at the moment during Covid when some of the usual places you might stop at will be closed. Speak to your venue in advance to discuss the most appropriate time for you to arrive, and add extra contingency time to get you there early. I much prefer turning up early and maybe having to hang around a bit as opposed to clock watching en-route and panicking because there's been an unexpected traffic jam (or whatever) that holds you up.



If your cake is stacked, make sure you have suitable internal support inside (cake dowels). And not just 'adequate' support, but support you can really trust and know 100% will not fail on you. People may give you good dowelling/stacking advice, but there's nothing like trying something out for yourself and testing your system. I've built a couple of 'experiment' cakes in the past which I dowelled, put in the boot of my car, and basically drove around with for a couple of days. Not careful driving either, but 'normal' driving to give me 100% confidence. I also at that time tested the strength of my dowels with the same cake. I stacked increasingly heavy weights on the top to make sure the structure was firm, stable, and not going anywhere. I think I maybe go to the extreme with these things but what it does is that it makes me sleep easier knowing the internal structure of my cakes is really strong. If you feel more comfortable transporting individual tiers and stacking on site, then do this.

It's so important to use good quality non-slip mat. Inside your cake box under your cake, and in the car underneath the cake box (transported in the boot of course, the best flat/level place - no car seats or cakes on knees allowed!). I've always got mine from Lakeland, but lately I've had a couple of rolls which don't seem as good, so I might need to source from another place.

Support and cushion any wobbly fragile decorations which might rattle around in the car. Use scrunched up cling film to cushion and lightly wrap.

If something were to break on your journey how would you sort it? What do you need to take with you? I pack a box the night before with my emergency kit in, everything I might need to carry out cake repairs. To be fair my box has got smaller over the years as I've become more confident that my cakes travel well, but I still carry things like royal icing, palette knife, dresden tool & paintbrushes. If the decorations aren't particularly fragile I don't bother taking spares, but for something like sugar flowers (especially when I'm travelling a long way) I take some spares just in case of breakages. To date I've never had to use any, but it's a good safety net and gives peace of mind. I also take a spirit level to check the table and cake stand are level, and bits of cardboard to wedge underneath if I need to straighten. And of course my camera.

And finally, always get a signature from venue staff after you have set up your cake. I have a written disclaimer which I get staff to sign which asks them to inspect the cake and agree it has been delivered in perfect condition. My disclaimer also states I can't take responsibility for any subsequent damage to the cake caused by staff, guest or accident, and it's written into my T's & C's that I can't take responsibility for the sturdiness of cake stands which are not my own, or even cake tables (did anyone see that poor couple last year who had their cake table collapse from underneath them as they were cutting their cake?). As cake makers we worry about every eventuality, but it's impossible to predict accidents or control how others treat and handle your precious cake after you've left the venue, so write it down, get a signature, pass on the responsibility, and drive away from the venue without any 'what if an earthquake happens' worries.

That's been a lot of words! If you actually read to the bottom then I think you probably deserve a badge! Hopefully some of it has helped, and if you have your own delivery hints & tips then please feel free to come and join in with our Facebook group and share with us!