<p>“he might not have plates, etc. to serve it on yet”</p>
<p>Several times I have sent kids parties in a box. I made a flourless chocolate cake, wrapped it well, and put it in a box with party plates, napkins, forks, balloons, blowers, hats, favors, etc. Sent it priority or perhaps overnight mail and it was always a big hit. When one kid was in language school on her Bday I sent it with chopsticks and Chinese character temporary tattoos, etc. She and her friends loved it. Also, when you have a cake, you make new friends. It’s not a baked good, but another time I sent a kid a pinata already stuffed with candy, along with loads of fiesta themed favors. The most popular item was a bunch of fake mustaches. Again - instant party.</p>
<p>My kids are both September babies and DS heads off tomorrow…I have sent these great petit fours from Divine Delights in California to my daughter and she loves them… They have a box of petit fours critters that I am thinking about sending DS. </p>
<p>Parents weekend is early, and is the week before DS’s birthday, so I may just take his birthday things then.</p>
<p>I like the petit four idea! D’s roommates birthday is this week so I’ll send her something,too. She an int’l student and a healthy eater. (d likes that she will be encouraged to eat better, too). Maybe oatmeal cookies or homemade granola bars.
I’ve also decided to include the biethday themed paper goods. Thanks for the idea!</p>
<p>I bake a lot, and never had a problem sending baked goods (usually cookies) cross-country using 2 day flat rate boxes. The one cake I sent was a dense poundcake consistency sort of thing. I don’t send anything especially delicate or gooey (e.g. lemon bars). </p>
<p>If you have a favorite no-bake cookie recipe, you can send ingredients and equipment assuming your kid has a fridge and/or microwave. My instructions to D1 included a list of what to swipe/borrow from the dining hall (mixing spoon, knife, butter, salt ).</p>
<p>Love the “party in a box” idea. We’ll be visiting campus the weekend before D’s 18th birthday in September, and I’ve already promised to bring her favorite cupcakes for her team. I think I’ll also leave a “party in a box” with her roomate or one of her teammates to be opened on the actual day. Will include a pizza gift card.</p>
<p>S always liked banana bread and zucchini bread, which traveled well in the flat rate boxes. I usually send either chocolate chip,peanut butter, or oatmeal cookies, and I make the dough into bar cookies, which hold up better in the mail.</p>
<p>I once or twice sent a birthday in a box with birthday plates and napkins and forks and I made a giant chocolate chip cookie on a pizza pan. I went to a pizza place and asked to buy a pizza box and round cardboard (but they just gave those to me). I decorated the box and packed the giant cookie (which I had decorated) in the box. Another time I made a cake and sent it in the 9 x 11 pan, frosted, with lid so they could eat the cake and keep the pan, too.</p>
<p>I just thought of another idea. Three friends and I have recently launched our kids and I thought of a cookie exchange. We’ve been doing that every year for the holidays. Why not “just for fun”?</p>
<p>Love all of these ideas! I do have a question about shipping brownies - would it just be better to leave the brownies in the pan and ship them that way? I have a couple of brownie recipes that my son loves and am thinking about sending some in a week or two (he has only been at college a week now). And since one recipe makes two pans, I am glad of the suggestion to send double batches - would be very easy to do.</p>
<p>I did have to send him a package this week of some stuff that he forgot and I did email him that the package would be there on Thursday since all mail and packages go to one central location at his college. I am thinking a text that he needs to go to check his mail would not spoil the surprise to much - he wouldn’t know what was in the box!</p>
<p>Wrestlingmom - maybe you could get one of the free priority mailing boxes from the PO and then find a disposable plastic storage box at the grocery store that fits into it. If you just mail the brownies in their pan, you son won’t have any way to close them and keep them fresh. Of course this may not be a problem if they are devoured quickly.</p>
<p>I had fun making halloween goody bags for D and her roommate freshman year. Sent tote bags, little toys, and lots of mcls halloween candy in a fed ex priority mail box. Those boxes are great.</p>
<p>My mom sent ME lemon poppyseed bundt cake for my birthday in the past. A solid dense cake. She’d put a lot of plastic bags around it. It weathered the mail well.</p>
<p>If you are not a baker and want to send a homemade baked treat, I recommend Racine Danish Kringles. I swear these taste like they were made in your grandma’s kitchen. They are cute, definitely large enough to share, good for a dessert, with coffee, or as a sweet breakfast pastry. Only shipped M T or W, only shipped second day air, always arrive fresh. 27 flavors. Totally yummy. We used to send them as gifts at work and always ordered one for ourselves. [Racine</a> Danish Kringles - Authentic Kringle, Cheesecake, Holiday and Corporate Gifts](<a href=“http://www.kringle.com%5DRacine”>http://www.kringle.com)</p>
<p>4, going on 5 years of care package experience to share (even sent steaks to my son’s unit in Afghanistan successfully!):
Cookies that are dense and a bit moist do best. ( favorites include Oatmeal, white CC, dried cherries; chocolate fudge with white cc and dark CC and macadamian nuts) Brownies do best just a bit undercooked, then transfer as a large slab piece to a smaller disposable pan, (I’m baking and sending to 4-5 people each time) with a suggestion to microwave a bit before eating (or dorm oven). I learned early on the value of ZipLock brand vacuum seal bags. They come with a little vacuum pump. If you put the cookies in when not quite fully cooled, they taste like they just came out of the oven, even a week later, and the vacuum sealing actually greatly cuts down on breakage. Worth the few extra pennies.
We have a great ship bakery here (so I can add the candles little things etc.) but Rowena’s bakery makes to die for dense pound cakes that they will ship anywhere, and have incredible sauces to pour over instead of frosting. (Discount for boxes shipped to Armed Forces.) [url=<a href=“http://www.rowenas.com%5DRowenas%5B/url”>http://www.rowenas.com]Rowenas[/url</a>] The other thing I’ve done for one summer in Philadelphia was found a local bakery there I called and they delivered a cake to student there for birthday. (when I was not sure of mail, or temp/spoilage) Lots of towns now have cupcake and fruit arrangement people who will deliver.
I almost always ship USPS. UPS and Fed Ex sometimes do poorly delivering to colleges. This is something you should find out from your student asking upper classmen as soon as you can. The USPS flat rate box will usually save some money for very heavy things like brownies, but for most else that will fit in those boxes, if you have them weigh it, you usually can save a bit. I don’t usually worry about return receipts etc, just send a “heads up, check your po box” e-mail that gets students anticipating. For baked goods, or anything I want to get there in less than a week, I always use Priority mail, it’s not a lot more. And I have found shipping before 1 pm on Monday or Tues has the fastest arrival time. (at least from my area). For packing material, I usually just used extra newspaper, (some of my students said they like unwrinkling the local sections or funnies to catch up with home town) or plastic grocery bags (used again on other end as trash can liners.)</p>
<p>We dropped our son off today. On the six-hour drive he said that he wants to celebrate his September birthday at Thanksgiving. It made me sad that he is already feeling bad that he will be away for his birthday.</p>
<p>Freeze freshly made cookies or bars in an airtight container between layers of wax paper and ship them that way. They will stay fresh in transit as they defrost.</p>
<p>One more tip: do not use reduced-fat or reduced-sugar recipes when you’re going to ship. They may turn out OK, but sugar and butter are preservatives, and traditional recipes are more likely to arrive tasting moist and fresh. (Most college students aren’t watching calories anyway.) </p>
<p>Shipping a cake in its original foil pan, with a sugary icing or glaze sealed to the edges on top, works well.</p>
<p>Once you have an approximate idea of the size of package you’d need to send, you could check with [ShipGooder:</a> Courier Rate Search, Shipping Rate Search for FedEx, UPS, DHL and the United States Postal Service](<a href=“http://www.shipgooder.com%5DShipGooder:”>http://www.shipgooder.com) to compare shipping prices.</p>
<p>Just another idea for a special treat for those not having birthdays right now … cheryl’s is doing her free six sampler cookie with 6.99 shipping.</p>
<p>cheryls-dot-com-forward slash- free</p>
<p>cheryls.com/free</p>
<p>I’ve done this and my son also appreciates it - great cookies. I sent the “good luck this semester” treat just this week.</p>
<p>Sent brownies once to DS1, just before his December exams. Very disorganized kid, still hdn’t figured out to go to the post office. They sat there all through his exams and all through his December/January break. Finally, the school’s post office CALLED him to have him pick up the package! I still find unopened letters from that year that he brought home.</p>
<p>Nowadays, I use the USPS priority boxes and pop them in the post office just before they’re picked up (6:00am). Sometimes my kids have gotten the packages the next day!</p>
).</p>