Cake boxes provide protection for a variety of bakery treats, from cakes to donuts. Cake boxes are available in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes. You can be making the most of cake boxes when you add a few special extras to the boxes. Supplying customers with cupcake separators and cake support pads will help your clients to transport their baked goods without any frosting mishaps.

Another way to make the most of bakery boxes is to have a company custom-design and print them with information like your logo and address. A custom-printed box is a great advertising tool. With the extras you are adding to your boxes, you will want to purchase cake boxes for the best price, typically from a wholesale vendor. As you consider your options for cake and pastry boxes, think about the following:

1. Use cupcake separators and cake support pads in bakery boxes.

2. Order custom-printed bakery boxes or decals.

3. Purchase bakery boxes from wholesale dealers.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Provide cupcake separators and support pads to add stability to bakery packaging

Flimsy cake boxes set the stage for sliding cakes and smudged frosting. Help your customers keep their cakes and pastries intact by providing them with cupcake separators and cake support pads. These little extras are an inexpensive way to treat your customers.

I recommend: In additions to cake boxes, Uline Shipping Supplies also sells support pads. Its support pads are sturdy and greasy resistant. A-J Winbeckler Enterprises is another provider of bakery supplies. It sells cupcake inserts that keep cupcakes separated and upright.

Use custom cake box packaging

Affixing custom labels to your bakery boxes or using custom-printed boxes is a great marketing strategy. A large, bright company logo on bakery cake boxes will be eye-catching and stand out in a clients mind. A signature box helps identify your brand to your clients and to people who eat your goods at functions where a client provided snacks.

I recommend: U.S. Box is a packaging specialist that sells both cake boxes and prints custom labels. Get discounts when you make purchases of qualifying dollar amounts. Catawba Paper Box custom makes boxes according to your specifications. Work with its design specialist to create bakery boxes unlike your competitions.

Purchase discount and wholesale cake boxes

Purchasing discount and wholesale cake boxes will help you to make the most of your cash. Wholesale vendors sell all the same items that other vendors provide. It is often necessary to set up a business account with wholesale vendors in order to get business to business pricing.

I recommend: ReStockIt.com is a cake box supplier that sells cake boxes at large discounts. Choose from a huge variety of discounted pastry boxes at its site. Brenmar is a wholesale provider of bakery containers, including clear cake boxes. Brenmar is strictly a business to business vendor.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  It may cost less to purchase bakery boxes from a wholesale vendor and then add a decal to the boxes rather than having them custom printed. You can also get quotes from local printers to see whether you can reduce the cost if they do your printing.

Bakery boxes come in all shapes and sizes for all kinds of creations. Why not have your pastry boxes serve as walking advertisements for your bakery? It's easy to design cake boxes with your logo or a distinctive pattern to provide effective advertising.

Even if the only detail you add to a plain white cake box is a sticker with your logo on it, people will recognize it. Or, you can take the opposite approach and get custom boxes printed up from a cake box supplier. Whatever you decide, here are some tips to help you out:

1. Buy white or clear cake boxes in bulk and spice them up with a sticker or stamp displaying your name or logo.

2. Find attractive bakery packaging to box up cupcakes for your customers. You might even want to find cupcake boxes with party themes, like Barbie for little girls.

3. Have cake boxes on hand for packing up pastries. Pastries are popular among the business crowd, and oftentimes, executives will buy breakfast for everyone attending the morning meeting.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Buy cake boxes by the case to keep costs down

Any time you buy in bulk you're saving your business some money. Order some simple white cake boxes to adorn with your logo or choose a specific color or accent stripe to be your signature package.

I recommend: Purchase cake boxes and cake pads from Uline Shipping Supplies, which offers plain boxes as well as boxes with windows. Choose from a large selection of colors and sizes at PAPER MART.

Prevent frosting mishaps with special cupcake packaging

Cupcakes pose a unique challenge since they topple over easily. Taking one quick turn in a car on the way to a party can pretty much guarantee destroyed frosting and unhappy party guests. This won't happen if you use cupcake packaging. Slap a sticker with your logo on the box and you're ready to roll.

I recommend: Try out the box inserts from Big River Packaging that keep cupcakes from bumping into each other. Several different packaging ideas are offered by Sugarcraft, including plastic cupcake trays and decorative boxes.

Stock pastry boxes to cater to the morning breakfast crowd

On their way to work, sometimes people will stop off and get a pastry and coffee for themselves. But other times, it's their turn to bring food for the entire staff at their office. It's wasteful and unprofessional to send a customer on his way toting ten small paper bags, each containing one pastry. You can avoid this by buying larger pastry boxes, ranging from flat boxes for bear claws to contoured plastic packages for donuts.

I recommend: Pack muffins, donuts and cinnamon rolls into the plastic disposable boxes offered by Plastic Container City. Get your pastry boxes custom printed at First Impressions Printing; they offer hot stamping in metallic and matte colors as well as ink imprinting.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Due to the size of wedding cakes, they must be moved in special wedding cake boxes. These boxes are sturdy and prevent the cake from sliding around and getting ruined during transport.

Whether you run a bakery, grocery store, restaurant, catering service or other food service business, there are many ways to save money on cake boxes. Although super-heavy, custom-printed cake box packaging is a nice idea, remember that cake boxes are, after all, disposable. What really matters is that you're providing your customers with a delicious cake. Why spend a large chunk of money on something that will almost instantly be thrown away?

When thinking about saving money on cake boxes, first and foremost remember to buy a box that is of suitable quality. For example, wedding cakes are usually so large and heavy they require special wedding cake boxes; an ordinary pastry box will likely result in a smashed cake and an unhappy customer. So in the pursuit of saving money, make sure you still purchase cake boxes that are suitable to your needs. Then, consider the following ways to cut your expenses:

1. Buy cake boxes in bulk.

2. Select simple, standard wholesale cake boxes.

3. Shop for clear cake boxes at restaurant supply stores.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Purchase bakery packaging in bulk quantities

Buying in bulk costs more initially but saves you money in the long run. Of course, you don't want to buy more cake and pastry boxes than you require, so carefully consider how many boxes you'll need for a specified period of time--say, up to six months. Be sure to bear in mind that you'll need a suitable place to store all your cake boxes.

I recommend: Uline Shipping Supplies sells a nice assortment of cake and pastries boxes and pads in bulk. Paper Mart offers bulk cake boxes, including those with clear plastic windows.

Buy cake boxes that are simple and standard

Buying simple, white bakery boxes can save you a considerable amount of money. Plain pink bakery boxes are also inexpensive but are still $10 to $15 more expensive per case of 100. Therefore, unless you have a great reason for choosing colored instead of white boxes, stick with white. If you want a customized look, it's usually cheapest to have attractive stickers made, which you can use to seal standard boxes.

I recommend: ReStockIt.com has a great selection of standard cake and pasty boxes in both white and pink. Instawares also has a good variety of standard bakery packaging.

Purchase clear cake boxes from restaurant suppliers

Unless you can buy in bulk from the manufacturer, your least expensive source for clear cake boxes is almost always a good restaurant supply wholesaler. For the best selection, look for a supplier who deals with many caterers and bakeries. Often, online restaurant suppliers offer cheaper wares because they can buy in larger bulk quantities.

I recommend: The WEBstaurant Store is a cake box supplier that sells a variety of white, plastic cake boxes at wholesale prices. Foodservicedirect.com offers deep round dome cake boxes of clear plastic.

When it comes to choosing cake boxes for your bakery or store, the selection goes way beyond plain white boxes. The boxes and accessories you choose can help to define your company's image and reinforce your business name with customers. Get to know some of the terms used in cake and bakery boxes to choose the best items for your business.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Windows

Cake boxes with cellophane windows are popular and easy to find. The window in the top of the box allows customers to see your cakes without opening the box and are a great way to market and package bakery items.

I recommend: See examples of cake boxes with windows at Kitchen Krafts.

Cake pads

Cake pads are usually made of heavy cardboard. A cake is placed on a cake pad to give it support during transport and presentation. Cake pads are available in various sizes, as well as circular boards (called cake circles) used to transport circular cakes. Cake pads are often laminated in gold, silver or other colors for a decorative touch. Some cake pads are grease proof; they don't show stains or allow leakage to the box.

I recommend: View the WEBstaurant Store website to get examples of cake pads and cake circles.

Cupcake packaging

Cupcakes require special care for packaging, since they can slide together in a large box and make a mess. Besides that, you may want to show off cupcakes with special packaging or in quantities that are fewer than the standard dozen. Solve these packaging problems with cupcake holders to keep them in place and containers designed to elegantly display a single cupcake or a small number of cupcakes.

I recommend: View a large selection of cupcake packaging at Big River Packaging

Custom

Getting your company's name and logo on your cake boxes is a great marketing tool and adds a professional touch. This can be done simply with stickers that attach to the box. More expensive, but professional, methods include having boxes printed with your name and logo and custom colored boxes that coordinate with your store and logo colors.

I recommend: Mansfield Paper offers custom printing.

Plastic

Plastic containers are durable and disposable. They usually feature hinged designs and lids that lock into place for a secure fit. They are a good choice of packaging for wholesale bakery items.

I recommend: Check out Plastic Container City for a large selection of disposable plastic cake containers.

Kid's cakes

Cake boxes that coordinate with a child's birthday cake theme add a special touch. They have handles so that a multi-layered cake is easy to carry and are an interesting shape that a child can play with later.

I recommend: Find many character and other kid's themed boxes at Sugarcraft.