How to Ship Baked Goods
Super easy tips on How to Ship Baked Goods including money-saving postage options, and wrapping to keep your treats fresh and in tact!
It's May, which means that I have been participating in The Leftovers Club for one whole year. 12 months of swapping "leftover" treats (you guys know we never actually have leftovers around here, right?) with friends that I've found from coast to coast. It's really fun and I always look forward to it -- I mean, imagine if your favorite food blogger wrapped up those brownies you were drooling over and mailed them to you?!
Awesome, right? Right.
Here's the thing though. Sometimes awesome brownies do not hold up in the mail.
Actually, LOTS of things don't hold up in the mail. So after one year of hits and misses, stale treats, crumbled cookies, hockey pucks, and other assorted oddities that I know started out as THE MOST amazing foods, I decided to use my experience here (and shipping goodies retail) to break it all down for you (and if you have more tips, please leave them in the comments!).
If you've never done this, I will totally vouch. IT WORKS!! I wrote a whole post on my results using white cake and some insanely delicious green frosting. Pictured here are brownies, from scratch, all baked and cooled and ready to eat right out of that jar.
You will have to adjust your bake time (obviously), and then you will FREEZE whatever you've baked before shipping. I would not recommend this for long distances in the summer, but for 1-day mail in a moderate climate (or another bizarrely frigid winter) this solution is perfect! You can find the whole tutorial on shipping cupcakes on The Cupcake Project HERE.
Plastic wrap is your friend. Tupperware is not.
This is going to sound sort of counter-intuitive, but bear with me and I'll explain.
SAVE YOUR NICE PLASTIC CONTAINERS!!
Here's why: Plastic containers are basically air-tight. Which is perfect in your climate-controlled, humidity-free home. Especially when you open the container everyday to grab a cookie and the moisture has a chance to escape.
But when you put that air-tight container in the mail and it isn't opened for days, that moisture hangs around. If it's too warm outside mold can happen. Once I got a very nice container full of sweet mushy goo that I think started out as bars of some kind. The photos were gorgeous! The recipe looked perfect! What came in the mail was not. Plastic wrap fastened with a pretty sticker is cheaper, cuter, and much more forgiving. PLUS it's smaller to ship.
***Things that DO ship well in air-tight containers are granola and nuts***
Treat bags are soooooo cute. And I feel all professional whenever I deliver cookies or something tucked neatly into these little parchment envelopes. Bonus points for more stickers.
I really dig a good 'ol brown bag. You can stuff it full of so many things! Cookies, brownies, bars, granola, loose nuts -- you can brown bag ANYTHING. If you are shipping things that need to retain moisture, you probably want to wrap in plastic before brown bagging. This is how I deliver lots of things locally. Totally cheap and stylish, I think (but remember I live in jeans and tank tops, so you may not want to take my word on the stylish thing).
Pack Carefully!!!!
Newspapers, plastic bags, construction paper -- you need to FILL your box to capacity so that things don't move around and get smooshed. Once I got some INCREDIBLE macarons in the mail, but they were all chipped and broken. I ate them anyway (oh yes I did) but I felt so sad for the maker because I know she poured some time and heart and soul into them. You can't ever really guarantee that nothing will break, but you can do your best to try!
OH!!
And while we are talking about boxes -- I need to tell you my secret.
You can go to the USPS website and order boxes FOR FREE and have them delivered right to your door. It's basically amazing. I ALWAYS opt for USPS Priority Mail 2-Day delivery. It's a flat rate no matter how many loaves of banana bread you shove in that box. AND you know your goodies won't be traveling for a week.
A little bit of flair (37 pieces, to be exact) goes a long way. I love sparkles, confetti, raffia, paper grass -- it all makes your gift feel like just a little MORE. I mean, if you are mailing muffins you can skip the wrapping paper, right?
Personal labels are happy. If you have'em, use 'em.
When you go to ship, I have one more super easy time-saving tip for you:
If you ship with USPS, you can not only use the flat rate 2-day FREE boxes, but you can also print your labels right from your computer and have the mailman pick the package up right off your porch!
I do like to play around with the mailing options -- some are cheaper than others. For example, a standard medium box to anywhere in the US is $11.30. But I'm in North Carolina and if I am shipping to other states on the east coast, a Regional Rate A box is almost EXACTLY the same size, but ships (any weight!) for around $5.60.
The bottom line here though, is that you can handle all the mailing without leaving home! How easy would this be at Christmas?! Just saying.
I typically schedule pickup the night before, bake either that night or in the morning, let everything cool completely, and have it picked up in the afternoon.
SOOOO easy.
Things That Ship Well...
- cookies
- bars
- brownies
- blondies
- muffins
- quick breads
- bread
- crackers
- cupcakes!! (baked in jars)
- nuts
- granola & granola bars
Things That Don't Hold Up So Well in the Mail...
- popcorn (it softens instead of staying crunchy; there is a reason for all those crazy preservatives in packaged popcorn!)
- frosted or frosting-filled cookies (something with a shortening or peanut butter base MIGHT be okay, but the frosting tends to harden, turning your cookie into a weapon)
- truffles (this can vary. If you have a mostly-cake base it might work. But you want to avoid any climate changes, especially with heat. Be cautious)
- bark or chocolate (think of a chocolate bar that warmed and then cooled -- the color is off and it looks chalky. Sometimes the texture is affected, too)
Hi Heather! Thank you so much for the information. I sent my boyfriend some cookies from Illinois to California two months ago and by the time he got them, 3 days later, the breakfast cookies, which were made with bananas Had mold on them! I had packed them in the air tight plastic container that you were talking about and because of the humidity, the long trip, fluctuation and the temperatures and the container I now know is why they molded! I was so sad and embarrassed when he sent me the picture. I am going to try this again but minus the bananas! This time I’m going to try wrapping them and parchment paper or even plastic wrap!
Heather, I just started shipping baked goods in the past 6 months for the first time. So far everything seems to have gotten to their destination in good shape & still tasty. However, this will be the first time I ship in this extreme heat we are having & I'm shipping to the south. My thought was to drop at post office as close to cut off at 5:00 as possible using priority mail. Since I'm not paying for weight was wondering about putting freezer pack in with the muffins I'm sending. I know it will be defrosted way before it arrives but thought it might buy me a 1/2 day of being less exposed to the heat. The packs I have are a better quality, longer lasting than some of them on the market. Thoughts?
I think this sounds like a great plan! Priority mail should be 1-2 days. So that + a freezer / dry ice pack and you should be good to go!
Hi Everyone! I want to send baked goods from Canada to my friend for the holidays, who is deployed in Iraq until spring. Can I do this the same way?
Hi Heather! I recivied a request for some of my apple crisp from my brother-in-law for Christmas. I was wondering if it would hold up being shipped. I would be shipping it to Buffalo N.Y. and i'm in va? Thanks in advance for a reply.
Hi- how can I overnight Apple crisp (location is 2 hrs from my house)? Freeze it first?
Thank you for all this amazing information! How would you recommend I wrap an Irish Soda Bread. It is a slightly sweet version with some raisons. I live in PA and will be shipping one to my Dad in NY and one to my Mother-in-law, further north in NY.
Hi Heather,
I am planning to put up a business that involves shipping out baked goods (specifically Mexican style sweet breads), any suggestion/s on the best way to ship them around the US?
Hope you can answer my question!
Best,
Steph
I like that you said that plastic containers are basically air tight. Recently my wife was wondering about shipping treats to people. Now that I know this I might need to share this with her. It might be good to note what kind of food it is that is being shipped also.
Hey John! It DEFINITELY matters what you are shipping. Granola in an airtight container is great. Brownies or Banana Cake? Not so much. Be sure to read through the comments here because there are lots of great reader tips as well! Thanks so much for reading! -Heather
I know this is an old post, but still helpful. I just have to say I used to ship cookies to my from from UK to the US before we were married. And I just packed them in a tupperware container and mailed that. Didn’t need the box at all, I don’t know if we had free boxes though.
Great ideas. My Grandma has always sent us Christmas cookies all the way across the country each year and I am considering starting the same tradition or some other treat for my in-laws and their two kids. My Grandmother always used cookie tins with wax paper between the layers of cookies with good results, although sometimes there are some broken cookies. I love the idea of the flat rate box dropped off and picked up at my own home, that sounds like a great way to avoid the post office lines!
Grandmas with wax paper and tins knew how to do it right! Thanks so much, Emilia!
Hi I am asking how you send cupcakes and cookies over seas. I'd like to send some for our soldiers over there for Christmas but my husband says they won't make it. Lol
I want to mail Madeleine's to PA from CA. Can I bake them, cool and freeze them before mailing them priority mail in 1-2 days time? Please reply.
Hi Sherry! Yes you absolutely can! For Madeleine's though... you probably don't even need to freeze them. Just let them cool completely and wrap them in something that will help retain moisture but won't SEAL it in all crazy airtight. Think like the parchment bakery sleeves or even the little plastic treat bags, with the top folded and sealed with a sticker.
THIS WAS REALY HELPFULL I AM SENDING SOME BROWNIE TO MY SISTER SEVRAL STATES AWAY WILL THEY BE OK FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS? THANKS
yes they will be! 🙂 Happy baking!
Hi there! I'm wanting to send my boyfriend some blueberry muffins while he is deployed in the middle east. It's around 135 degrees there now. Are these good to send there? And if so, exactly how should I package them?
Thanks!
I should also mention, the last 2 packages I've sent took 11 days to be delivered.
Hi Kadi! So this is probably not the answer you want, but I can't think of any blueberry muffins that still taste great after 11 days. If that's not a concern then I can give you some tips on trying it. I'd DEFINITELY start by using a muffin recipe that calls for canned blueberries. I'd bake in the morning, cool completely, package, and ship the same day. I think because of the heat and the moisture content of muffins, I'd wrap them in parchment and NOT plastic. You can try parchment envelopes or parchment paper with baker's tape. Smaller muffins will dry out faster so go with standard or jumbo muffins.
If I've spooked you on the muffins you may want to try something more forgiving in the heat --= like shortbread. I hope this helps and I'm haoppy to answer any further questions!
I’m sending donuts to California from Wisconsin that I’m getting from a bakery but they will be frosted and some cookies how should I send them and how to wrap them
paper sleeves, paper lined, not airtight! Overnight.
Hi! So glad I came across this post. I just have a quick question... I'm considering making a quickbread with blueberry beer and shipping it from Virginia to Arizona (where it's currently in the 110's every day). Does this sound like a horrible idea? Should I wait for things to cool down a bit first? I have no idea how the beer will react will react to the heat, if at all (I know the alcohol mostly bakes out, but still...) Anyway, I appreciate any advice you may have.
Hi Pam!! I'd say definitely ship using Priority Mail so you are guaranteed 1-2 day delivery. Loosely wrap in bakery paper (parchment) And then slide it into a bread bag -- a plastic bag like what your storebought loaves come in at the store. Secure with a twist tie. This should seal in the moisture without promoting mold or anything from too much moisture. The bread sounds delicious!! Hope this is helpful!