Cake Boxes.

At about 12 inches across, or as soon as the cake is tiered, we move from coated board to E-flute corrugated. A decorated cake puts three to five pounds on one base panel, and light board flexes like a hinge when it's lifted by the sides.

Up to 10 inches, 24pt clay-coated board does the job and wipes clean. Between those sizes we look at the finished weight before deciding.

For decorated cakes we'd go with front-loading, since the drop panel lets the cake slide in level without fingers near the icing. Top-load lock-corner boxes erect faster, which is why high-volume counters use them for plainer cakes.

Both styles take a corrugated cake circle underneath. The circle spreads the load across the base, and staff lift the cake by it instead of by the sponge.

If the cake is boxed while still warm, or goes from a cold room into a warm car, vents are worth having. A sealed box traps the moisture, and condensation forms on the lid and drips back onto the icing.

We cut small vent holes high in the side panels, away from any window, so air moves without exposing the decoration. Cakes that stay chilled all the way to the table rarely need them.

Stock white with a one-colour logo is the counter classic, and full litho print is for celebration boxes that get opened in front of a room of guests. A window patch shows the decoration, and a ribbon closure finishes a gift cake.

The lid is where people look when the box is opened at the party, so we'd put the logo and your social handle there before anything goes on the sides.

Size the footprint to your cake circle with a small margin, and measure the height to the top of the tallest decoration. Our common sizes are 8 × 8 × 4 in, 10 × 10 × 5 in and 12 × 12 × 6 in, the last one for tiered work.

The lid should clear piping and toppers without touching, so for drip cakes we'd go one height up. A snug footprint also stops the circle sliding when the box is carried.

Yes, custom cake boxes start at 500 units, a quantity that suits a boutique bakery well. Most shops cover two or three common sizes and order each one separately at that level, then rotate stock through the week's orders.

The corrugated cake circles can be ordered with the boxes and cut to the same footprint, so everything arrives matched.

Cake boxes ship 7 to 10 business days after proof approval, and a rush slot brings that down to 5 to 7. If you want to test a size with a real cake first, a sample takes 5 to 7 business days and the fee is credited against your production run.

Wedding-season orders are worth placing early, since a sample of a tall format is where height problems show up before you commit.

Yes, kraft grades give the artisan-bakery look, and a compostable option is available on the standard formats. Whichever board you pick, the interior walls need a greaseproof or coated surface where buttercream might touch.

For cakes above 12 inches the E-flute corrugated box is paper-based as well, so the whole package, cake circle included, can go in paper recycling once it's clean.