My mom's birthday falls 2 weeks before Christmas, so I'm never able to make it home to celebrate with her. This year I sent a little birthday cake kit for her to decorate and enjoy with the rest of the family. Her favorite color is white, and since Chicago is currently blanketed with snow, I thought a snow-white cake would be most appropriate.
My mom's favorite dessert is coconut cream pie, but I wouldn't dare attempt to ship that, so instead she gets coconut cupcakes with coconut buttercream.
- I baked the cupcakes in tall, sturdy paper baking cups. I would have loved to find white ones, but they are almost always brown. These were from Daiso (the Japanese dollar store on Market), and I've seen other styles at Sur La Table in the Ferry Building. Once cool, I wrapped them in plastic and froze them overnight.
- In the morning I wrapped each in cream tissue paper, stuck each in a cellophane bag, and tied them tightly with white raffia.
- I spooned coconut buttercream into a plain little jar, covered the cap with tissue paper, tied it with raffia, and refrigerated it until time for shipping. Both the cake and the frosting are vegan — the recipe is from Vegan With A Vengeance — so I wasn't worried about them being safe-to-eat upon arrival. Use your own judgement!
- The decorating accoutrements for my mom were kept very simple: tiny shredded coconut, big flakes of coconut, snow-like large sprinkles, and sparkly silver-grey sprinkles. I considered sending a bunch of various white candies, but she wouldn't have liked most of them, and they might have clashed with the coconut flavor. Plain and lovely seemed like the better fit for her.
- I lined a mailing box with layers of cream and pale-grey tissue paper.
- Miraculously, everything fit perfectly, with plenty of room for extra cushioning. Then it was off to the post office: 2-day shipping to Chicago for this rather-heavy package was only $9.95! A bargain for getting to be with my mom in spirit on her birthday!
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That's a beautiful, thoughtful gift! Make sure she knows you made it all - it looks like a packaged gift! :) I'm wondering why you froze the cupcakes overnight. And do you think the buttercream would be fine unrefrigerated for two days?
fabulous idea! I'll have to hunt up a vegan frosting recipe.
What a thoughtful daughter!
It looks lovely and who wouldn't be thrilled to open this gift!
You were thoughtful and creative!
I would definitely be worried about the buttercream not being refrigerated for two days - and maybe a little worried that this wouldn't get stopped in the mail for some security reason. I've never lived far from my mom, but if I did I'd rather set up something like webcams so we could see each other on the special day and arrange to eat cupcakes at that time.
*Vegan* buttercream. So, it's made from plants and not animal stuffs.
alysaaria - You also don't know who handled this mail, how long it gets to sit in a storage facility, how many times it'll be dropped and damaged, etc. This is even if the food doesn't go bad.
ChrisGal, that's why you *carefully* package the items (bubble wrap comes to mind), and use 2 day shipping, Tess Wilson has detailed in her post. As someone who has baked both vegan- and non-vegan goods, I can attest that they certainly won't go bad without refrigeration for a couple days! Sugar-free goods you may run into trouble with though, as they do tend to spoil more quickly.
Anyway, what an excellent idea! I'm definitely going to have to look into those taller cupcake liners and some small jars so I can send birthday cakes to friends in the coming year~
I've done two day shipping myself - and I hate to break it to you, but sometimes it just doesn't get there in two days. Also things do get lost in the mail and turn up weeks/months later. A glass jar that couldn't possibly be wrapped more than two layers of bubble wrap (going by box) will NOT survive a fall off a forklift at the post office. Try it yourself - stand on top of your kitchen table and drop it straight to the ground - be careful cleaning up the glass. :)