Packing the Box

This is the reverse of an unboxing.  I have to send various supplies to Virginia so I can bake the wedding cake there without putting too much stress on the bride.  It's bad enough I'm camping out in her living room for two nights so I can hit the kitchen at the crack of dawn.

So, what do you need to make a wedding cake, other than ingredients and an oven?  Apparently, a lot.

• Cake pans (1 10", 3 8", and 2 6")
• cardboard circles
• cake drums
• baking strips
• gel colors
• wax paper (normally I'd buy it there, but I have 3 rolls)
• piping bags & tips
• boba straws
• toothpicks
• cake box (for the anniversary tier)
• offset spatula and scraper
• turntable
• thermometer (hers is broken)
• food scale (also broken, so I packed the one that barely works)
• dual-progam kitchen timer
• zester
• recipes & grocery spreadsheet
• photos of sample cakes, because they look better printed than on my phone

And these are just the things she didn't have!  There's a stand mixer I can use, mixing bowls, and one 8" cake pan.  I'm assuming she has cooling racks and oven mitts, because everyone does.  Michaels was having a very good sale, so I bought two new 8" pans and a 6" scraper.  My old one has dings and is probably over 25 years old.

There are a couple of things I threw in there for the heck of it, like a few bags of my favorite teas.  Last time I was there, there was only herbal tea or hot chocolate for a morning drink.  I can live without a coffee maker, but I need something with caffeine.  I was really impressed that I got everything to fit logically on the first try.  I'll stuff the rest with newspaper and bubble wrap before sealing.  I was hoping to toss some of my clothes in there so I wouldn't have to pack them, but the weather changes too quickly this time of year to plan ahead.

The really hard part about this is she hasn't decided 100% what she wants.  I'm preparing for any of the cakes we have discussed, including different breakdowns of the recipes for various size cakes.  When we're about to go shopping, I'll add up the cakes we're actually doing on the spreadsheet to make the grocery list.

One thing I'm bummed I couldn't send was lemons.  It's illegal to transport citrus from California without some special permit, so I can't even stash them in my bag on the plane.  I get that they're trying to stop fruit flies and diseases.  It's just inconvenient when you're used to getting Meyer lemons for free.

Next up, trying to figure out how to get a week's worth of Fall clothes, including party wear, into a carry-on.