A cake leaves our counter already assembled, in a box, with the top of the box cut open if the cake is tiered. Nothing is finished off at your end. Nothing is packed in pieces. Getting it home is about fifteen minutes of handling, and almost all of the damage we hear about happens in the first two.
What you are actually carrying
The box is the structure. Pick it up from the bottom with both hands, never by the sides and never by a lid, and keep it level from the moment it leaves the counter. A specialty layer cake in a 25cm box is heavier than people expect. The weight sits high. It starts to tip before your hands notice. Set it down before you open a car door, and never work a handle with the box under one arm.
The car, and the day before
Heat is the real enemy, not the drive. Cool the car before the cake goes in and keep it out of direct sun. Warm air reaches the ganache first, and a firm shell turns tacky enough to take a mark from the lid. The flattest surface in most cars is the footwell behind a front seat. Not the boot, where a cake slides on every corner. Not a passenger's lap. If your event is tomorrow, collect today. Cakes keep in a fridge in our packaging overnight with no change to taste or texture, and having it in the house already beats any amount of morning planning. Take a layer cake out one to two hours before serving so it comes back to temperature. Straight from the fridge the crumb is tight and the ganache is stiff, and the flavour stays shut.
The cakes that were built for the trip
For a long drive, a warm day, or somewhere without a fridge, order from the tea cakes and loaves range. We call them travel cakes because that is the point of them. No delicate frosting to bruise, no refrigeration needed. They look the same on arrival as they did on the bench. A 20cm loaf serves eight. A 25cm bundt serves sixteen. At the other extreme sit the large desserts. The Black & White Chocolate Mousse and the Romeo & Juliet cheesecake want the shortest possible journey and a fridge at the end of it. Mousse loses its set in a warm car well before anything looks wrong from the outside. Anything from the mini desserts range travels as single servings, and that removes the problem entirely.
Bring a second pair of hands
Collect with someone: the best transport advice we have. One person carries. The other drives, opens doors and clears the bags off the back seat, and nothing is ever balanced on a knee. A Thunder Chocolate or a Dulce Caramel at 25cm is a genuine two-person job, and it turns a chore into a small outing. Parking sits across the road, behind the building and along the side. Bike racks at the side entrance. We sit one block south of the Bus Interchange, roughly a seven-minute walk. Come early enough to sit down for ten minutes first, and the patisserie does the rest.
Storing it, then cutting it
At home, keep the cake in its box at room temperature, away from sun and any heat source. Refrigerate a layer cake overnight, or at any point if the room is warm, and bring it back out ahead of serving. To cut it, dip the knife in hot water and dry it between every slice. A hot blade goes through ganache without dragging it. Clean edge or smeared edge, the whole difference is that. The first slice lifts out whole, somebody says so, and the rest is suddenly easy. Then cut to the count, not by eye. A 15cm layer cake serves twelve to fifteen, 20cm serves twenty to twenty-five, 25cm serves thirty to thirty-five. A 25cm cake wants thirty-plus portions marked out before the first cut. The dessert catering boxes page and the mini cakes and petit fours range cover the formats that need no cutting at all.
Lead times, and where to find us
Most things need two days' notice, some larger desserts need three and petit fours need seven. The checkout date picker only offers dates the kitchen can meet for what is in your cart. Everything is collected from our patisserie inside The Welder on Welles Street in the central city. We do not deliver or courier anything, weddings and corporate orders included. Collection is deliberate, and it is how a cake reaches you intact. Doors open 10am to 9pm Tuesday to Saturday. More in our guides to ordering a cake, to choosing, storing and serving one and to dessert catering, and the frequently asked questions page has the rest.
