From our bakery to your table, every Caroline’s Cakes order is handled with tremendous care.
Our cakes are hand-wrapped in cellophane, packaged into our signature red tins, and shipped frozen in dry ice so they arrive ready for your celebration. Once your cake arrives, place it in the freezer right away to keep it at its best. We do not recommend storing our cakes in the refrigerator, as refrigeration can dry them out.
Because our cakes and many of our specialties are perishable, we carefully plan each shipment so it spends as little time in transit as possible.
Shipping at a Glance
- Perishable items ship via UPS and arrive within two business days of shipping.
- Non-perishable items ship via UPS or USPS.
- Shipping charges are based on the total shipping weight and destination ZIP code.
- We ship throughout all 50 United States and the District of Columbia.
- We cannot ship to P.O. Boxes, APO addresses, or FPO addresses.
- Most packages do not require a signature at delivery.
- Perishable shipments are scheduled to avoid sitting in transit over a weekend.
Please refer to the shipping map below to determine whether your destination is in our 1-day or 2-day delivery zone.
Perishable Orders
Perishable orders ship Monday through Wednesday for delivery within two business days.
If your destination is within our 1-day zone, perishable orders may ship Monday through Thursday.
Orders placed by 3:00 p.m. ET on an eligible shipping day will ship that day. Orders placed after 3:00 p.m. ET will ship on our next available shipping day.
That means orders placed after our final standard shipping day of the week—Wednesday for 2-day zones and Thursday for our 1-day zone—will generally ship the following Monday.
Need it Faster?
UPS Next Day Air is available Monday through Thursday for an additional charge.
We are unable to offer overnight shipping to Alaska or Hawaii.
If you need morning delivery or another special delivery arrangement, please call us at 888-801-CAKE (2253). Additional service charges may apply.
Delivery Timing
UPS may deliver residential packages as late as 10:00 p.m. Most residential deliveries arrive by approximately 7:00 p.m., while most business deliveries arrive by approximately 5:00 p.m.
Please note that a business operated from a residence is considered a residential address by UPS.
UPS Ground is not a guaranteed service. Our shipping map is based on UPS-published transit times, and the great majority of packages arrive as expected, but only eligible air services carry a UPS delivery commitment
Weekend Deliveries
To keep your order at its best, we do not ship perishable packages if they would remain in transit over the weekend. Our final standard shipping day is Wednesday for 2-day destinations and Thursday for destinations within our 1-day zone. Orders placed after those cutoffs will generally ship the following Monday.
Saturday delivery is available in some areas with UPS Next Day Air and Saturday Delivery service. It must be arranged by phone and carries an additional charge. Please call 888-801-CAKE (2253) and we’ll be happy to let you know what is available for your destination.
Sunday and Monday delivery are not available for perishable orders. UPS does not deliver our packages on Sunday, and Monday delivery would require the package to remain in transit over the weekend.
Caroline’s Cakes may occasionally adjust its standard shipping schedule during major holidays or when weather affects operations at our bakery.
Non-Perishable Orders
Non-perishable items ship Monday through Friday via UPS Ground or USPS unless expedited delivery is requested.
If an order includes both perishable and non-perishable products, the entire order will be handled according to our perishable shipping schedule.
Questions? Call 888-801-CAKE (2253) or email caroline@carolinescakes.com.
Receiving Your Package
UPS packages are shipped using UPS Shipper Release, so a signature is generally not required.
The decision to leave a package at the delivery location remains at the driver's discretion. For apartments, office buildings, gated communities, or other locations where delivery may be more complicated, we recommend having someone available to receive the package.
If you are sending a Caroline’s Cakes gift, please make sure your recipient will be available to receive it. We cannot be responsible for a package that is successfully delivered while the recipient is away.
Please Double-Check Your Shipping Address
Before placing your order, please take a moment to confirm that the recipient's name, street address, apartment or suite number, city, state, and ZIP code are complete and correct.
If you notice an error after ordering, call us at 888-801-CAKE (2253) as soon as possible.
We’re happy to make address changes before your shipping label has been printed. During peak season, labels may be prepared earlier than usual, so we encourage you to contact us as soon as possible with any updates. After your order leaves our bakery, address changes may be limited and additional carrier charges may apply.
Orders entered with a P.O. Box will be held until we are able to reach you for a valid street address.
If Something Isn't Right
We want every Caroline’s Cakes delivery to be a happy one.
Please open and inspect your package as soon as it arrives. If something has gone wrong, contact us within 7 days and we will review the issue and, when appropriate, make it right with a replacement or refund.
For a package that was delivered, the 7-day period begins on the delivery date. If a package never arrives, it begins on the expected delivery date shown in your order confirmation.
Photographs of the product and shipping carton are especially helpful and allow us to better understand what happened and work with UPS when necessary.
Call 888-801-CAKE (2253) or email caroline@carolinescakes.com and our team will be happy to help.
Because delivery records and carrier information become more difficult to investigate over time, please be sure to contact us within those 7 days.
Circumstances Beyond Our Control
Once a package has left our bakery, we are unable to issue refunds for problems resulting from an incorrect or incomplete shipping address, delays associated with major holidays, weather-related delivery disruptions, other circumstances outside our control, or a cake becoming unusable because the storage or handling instructions included with the shipment were not followed.
We will always do our best to help determine what happened and assist where we can.
A Note About Taste
We hope you love every bite, but we also understand that tastes are personal.
Because of the nature of our products, we are unable to replace or refund a cake solely because a recipient did not care for the flavor.
UPS Holidays
We are unable to ship on days when UPS is closed or not collecting packages, including:
New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year's Eve.
Delivery schedules may also change around these holidays.
Holiday Shipping
December is one of our happiest—and busiest—times of year.
You are welcome to place your holiday cake order well in advance, including earlier in the year for December delivery. In fact, we encourage it.
Carrier volume increases significantly during the weeks leading up to Christmas, which can make ground-delivery schedules less predictable. We publish our recommended holiday ordering and shipping deadlines each fall, so please refer to our current holiday information when planning your gifts and gatherings.
If delivery on a particular date is especially important, an expedited shipping service may be your best option.
Orders Placed Through Goldbelly
We are delighted to share Caroline’s Cakes through Goldbelly, and every Goldbelly cake is baked and packed in our kitchen with the same care.
Orders placed through Goldbelly are subject to Goldbelly's shipping, refund, and customer service policies rather than the policies on this page. If you placed your order through Goldbelly, please contact their customer service team directly for assistance.
Have a Shipping Question?
Our team is here Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m. ET.
Call 888-801-CAKE (2253) or email caroline@carolinescakes.com.
We’ll take good care of you.
Eat Cake. Be Happy.