Sending king cakes to customers, employees, business associates, or important clients can be much more than a Mardi Gras gift.
A large order can represent a significant investment, a public expression of gratitude, and part of how your company presents itself to the people who matter to your business.
If you are sending 100, 250, or 500 king cakes, you want that gesture to arrive the way you intended.
That is why a bulk king cake order should not be treated as simply buying more cakes. It is part gift, part logistics project, and part public relations.
The cake itself may actually be the easy part.
Large orders involve recipient lists, shipping addresses, delivery dates, flavors, gift messages, inserts, packaging, tracking, and sometimes hundreds of individual shipments.
Planning ahead gives both you and the bakery the best opportunity to do a great job—and helps protect the investment you are making in your customers, employees, or partners.
Start Planning Earlier Than You Think
If you are considering a large order for January or February, September or October is not too early to start talking to bakeries.
That may sound excessive for something that won’t ship for several months, but Mardi Gras bakeries become increasingly busy as the season approaches.
A large order can require considerable back-and-forth between you and the bakery:
- How many cakes?
- What flavors?
- Where are they going?
- One location or hundreds of locations?
- Iced or DIY?
- What delivery dates?
- What kind of gift message?
- Are you supplying inserts?
- Are there special items going into the boxes?
- Has the recipient list been finalized?
On very large orders, there can be dozens—or even hundreds—of emails, telephone calls and changes before everything is ready.
Starting early gives the bakery the best opportunity to do a great job for you. It gives both sides time to work through the details while production and shipping dates are still available. For something representing this much money—and this much goodwill—waiting until the last minute simply adds unnecessary risk.
It may also give the bakery greater flexibility in pricing, but never assume that a large order automatically receives a discount. Every bakery establishes its own policies and pricing.
Expect to Provide a Spreadsheet of Shipping Addresses
If your cakes are going to many different addresses, most large-volume shippers will not want 300 addresses pasted into an email.
The bakery will usually provide an Excel or CSV template and ask you to enter your recipient information in a specific format.
Follow that format exactly.
Do not rearrange columns, combine information into one field or add unnecessary notes, punctuation and symbols.
A clean list might include separate fields for:
- First name
- Last name
- Company
- Street address
- Apartment, suite or floor
- City
- State
- ZIP code
- Phone number
- Email address
- Gift message
Pro Tip: Don’t combine first and last names into one field unless the bakery asks you to.
The same goes for addresses. Keep the information clean and simple.
Before submitting the list, verify it.
Does that person still work there?
Did the company move?
Is the suite number correct?
Is that employee now working remotely?
A bakery can ship to the address you provide, but it cannot know whether your customer moved six months ago.
With 500 shipments, even a small percentage of bad addresses can create a surprisingly large problem.
Your Recipient Needs to Know Who Sent the Cake
This is easy to overlook.
The cake is being shipped from a bakery in New Orleans—not from your office.
Imagine receiving an unexpected king cake with a bakery’s return address and no message explaining who sent it.
That is why a gift message is particularly important on corporate orders.
Even something simple works:
“Happy Mardi Gras from everyone at ABC Company. Thank you for your business!”
Another option is having a printed company card or insert placed inside every package.
For a large corporate gift, a professionally printed card can make the shipment feel much more personal.
Generic Inserts Are Much Easier Than Personalized Inserts
There is an important difference between putting the same card into every box and matching a unique card to every recipient.
With a generic insert, the packing process is simple:
Every box gets the same card.
With individualized cards, the bakery now has to make sure:
John Smith’s card goes into John Smith’s cake, which receives John Smith’s shipping label.
Repeat that 500 times.
That requires considerably more labor and creates another opportunity for mistakes.
A bakery may charge for either type of insert, although some may include a generic insert at no additional cost. Personalized inserts are more likely to involve an additional handling charge.
Ask before assuming.
Can You Put Company Items or Mardi Gras Goodies in the Box?
Sometimes.
Businesses may want to include things such as:
- Company cards
- Branded Mardi Gras beads
- Logo doubloons
- Small promotional products
- Company merchandise
- Other lightweight gifts
These items may be supplied by the customer or, in some cases, the bakery may be able to provide Mardi Gras-related additions.
Again, every bakery is different.
The important thing is to discuss it early. Five hundred promotional items arriving at the bakery two days before your cakes are scheduled to ship is not a good plan.
DIY King Cake or Fully Iced?
This is an especially important decision for corporate orders.
Many shipped king cakes today arrive as DIY kits with the icing and purple, green and gold sugars packaged separately.
For families and home celebrations, this can be ideal. Decorating the cake becomes part of the Mardi Gras experience, and an un-iced cake generally travels better.
Corporate gifting can be different.
If you are sending a cake to an important client, law office, bank or corporate headquarters, you may prefer for that customer to open the box and find a finished, decorated king cake ready to serve.
Bakery policies vary considerably.
Some bakeries ship only DIY kits.
Others offer both DIY and fully iced cakes.
And occasionally a bakery that does not advertise fully iced shipping may be willing to discuss it for a large corporate order.
It doesn’t hurt to ask.
Be Careful With Ground Shipping on Large Orders
For a large order going to many different parts of the country, be cautious about using a bakery that ships exclusively by ground service.
Ground shipping time is based largely on distance. A customer a few hundred miles from the bakery might receive the cake quickly, while another recipient across the country could be in transit for several days.
That may be acceptable when all of your recipients are relatively close to the bakery. It is much riskier when you are shipping 100, 250 or 500 cakes nationwide.
For a large nationwide order, I would avoid a bakery that relies exclusively on ground shipping unless most of your recipients are within a few hundred miles of the bakery. Ask whether a defined two-day or overnight service is available for longer-distance shipments.
The important distinction is predictability.
A two-day express shipment has a defined transit window. Ground delivery can vary substantially depending on the destination.
If all of your recipients are within a few hundred miles of the bakery, ground shipping may be economical and perfectly reasonable. But for a nationwide bulk order, I would strongly favor a bakery that can offer a predictable express-shipping option.
Iced Cakes Can Cost More to Ship
Shipping method is another reason the DIY-versus-iced decision matters.
A DIY king cake can often travel using two-day service because there is no finished icing on the cake to smear or become damaged during transit.
A fully decorated cake is more delicate, and many bakeries that ship iced cakes prefer or require overnight service.
The difference may not look enormous when you’re buying one cake.
Multiply it by 500.
Even an additional $10 per package becomes:
500 cakes × $10 = $5,000 in additional shipping.
Actual shipping rates vary by bakery, carrier, destination and season, but with a large order, relatively small per-package differences quickly become significant.
For this reason, ask about the total delivered cost per cake, not simply the price of the cake.
Quantity Is Only One Part of Bulk Pricing
Customers understandably assume that ordering more cakes should result in a lower price.
Sometimes it does.
Sometimes it doesn’t.
There is no standard king cake industry bulk discount.
One bakery may offer special pricing at a certain quantity while another may charge its normal price regardless of order size. Pricing may also change depending on the time of year and the complexity of your order.
And ten or twenty cakes may be considered a nice-sized order without necessarily being considered a major bulk order.
When bakeries are talking about serious large-volume production, orders can easily reach 100, 500, 1,000 cakes or more.
More importantly, quantity is not the only thing that determines how difficult an order is to fulfill.
Compare these two 500-cake orders.
Order A
- 500 traditional king cakes
- Clean, accurate spreadsheet
- Same gift message in every box
- No personalized inserts
- DIY kits
- Flexible January shipping window
- Order arranged months in advance
Order B
- 500 cakes in several flavors
- Spreadsheet requiring corrections
- Personalized cards
- Fully iced cakes
- Exact delivery date
- Numerous last-minute changes
- Order placed near Mardi Gras
They may both contain 500 cakes, but from the bakery’s perspective they are completely different jobs.
The easier an order fits into the bakery’s production and packing schedule, the more flexibility the bakery may have when quoting it.
But there is never a guarantee of a discount.
Flexibility Can Be Valuable
If your cakes absolutely must arrive on one particular day, tell the bakery.
But if the exact date is not important, flexibility can help.
For example:
“Anytime between January 20 and January 30 works for us.”
That gives the bakery an opportunity to place your order into production when capacity is available rather than forcing hundreds of additional cakes onto one particular baking and shipping day.
That flexibility may make the order easier to accept and could affect pricing.
The closer you get to Mardi Gras, however, the less flexibility most bakeries have.
Do not count on receiving special pricing during the busiest final days of the season. Those production and shipping spaces are valuable and may already be filled with customers paying regular price.
Taste the Cake Before You Commit to a Large Order
If you are considering sending hundreds of king cakes, it is worth tasting the bakery’s product before making the final commitment.
Photos, reviews and reputation are helpful, but taste is subjective. The cake you personally love may not be the one you want representing your company to 500 customers.
Ask the bakery whether you can order a sample cake or a few different flavors before finalizing the bulk order.
Do not assume the samples will be free.
Many bakeries will charge for the cakes and shipping, even when you are considering a substantial future order. Some may apply part of that cost toward a later order, but that is entirely up to the bakery.
If possible, test the same type of cake your recipients will actually receive. If your corporate order will be shipped as a DIY kit using two-day service, tasting a freshly iced cake picked up at the bakery does not tell you exactly what your customers will experience.
A good test can help you evaluate:
- Overall taste and texture
- Traditional versus filled
- Sweetness
- Filling quality
- Portion size
- Packaging
- Decorating instructions
- How the cake handles shipping
- How it tastes a day or two after arrival
For a very large order, spending a little money on samples before committing can be cheap insurance.
What Flavor Is Best for a Large Corporate Order?
When you’re buying one cake, choosing your personal favorite makes sense.
When you’re buying 500, the decision changes.
Traditional king cake is usually a very safe choice for large groups because it has broad appeal and is typically the least expensive option.
Cream cheese is another popular choice, followed by richer flavors such as praline and strawberry cream cheese.
Filled cakes generally cost more, and those few dollars become meaningful at high quantities.
A $4 difference multiplied by 500 cakes is $2,000.
For large shipped orders, also consider how well a filling travels.
Very wet fruit fillings can sometimes release moisture into the cake during storage and shipping. That moisture can soften icing, create sugary pooling inside the package and generally make the cake less forgiving during transit.
A flavor that works beautifully when purchased directly from a bakery counter is not necessarily the best choice for a cake traveling across the country.
If you are unsure, ask the bakery which of its fillings it recommends for shipping.
One Address Versus Hundreds of Addresses
There is also a major difference between ordering 100 cakes for one location and sending 100 cakes to 100 customers.
Multiple cakes traveling to the same destination can sometimes be packed together, potentially reducing the shipping cost per cake.
One hundred individual destinations require:
- 100 shipping labels
- 100 addresses
- 100 packages
- 100 tracking numbers
- 100 opportunities for a delivery exception
If your cakes are going to a conference, regional office or company event, ask whether shipping multiple cakes together can reduce your total cost.
Avoid Friday Business Deliveries When Possible
Friday can be a risky delivery day for corporate gifts.
People leave early.
Reception desks close.
Offices sometimes operate on shortened Friday schedules.
And if something delays the package until late Friday—or delivery is not completed—the cake may not reach the intended person until Monday.
For a perishable gift, that’s not ideal.
Whenever possible, schedule business deliveries earlier in the week and leave yourself some breathing room before the cake is actually needed.
If the cake is for a Thursday event, don’t automatically assume Thursday delivery is best.
Wednesday may be much safer.
Tracking Matters on Large Orders
Tracking one package is easy.
Tracking 500 is a project.
Before placing a major order, ask the bakery:
- Will tracking numbers be provided?
- Can they be provided in one spreadsheet or report?
- Can each tracking number be matched to its recipient?
- Who handles shipping exceptions?
- What happens if an address is incorrect?
- What happens if a carrier reports a delay?
- Will the recipient receive a shipping notification?
The larger the order, the more important this becomes.
A 98% successful delivery rate sounds excellent until you realize that 2% of 500 packages is ten customers who may need attention.
Understand Weather and Carrier Delays Before Ordering
King cakes travel during winter.
That means shipments can be affected by snowstorms, ice, airport closures, carrier hub problems, mechanical issues and other conditions neither the bakery nor the customer can control.
Do not assume every late shipment automatically receives a refund.
Carrier guarantees and bakery policies vary, and weather or other events outside the carrier’s control are frequently treated differently from ordinary service failures.
Ask about the bakery’s late-delivery policy before placing a large order, not after a storm shuts down a shipping hub with 200 of your cakes inside it.
This is also another reason not to schedule delivery at the very last possible moment.
The Most Economical Bulk King Cake Order
If your main objective is sending a large number of authentic New Orleans king cakes while controlling cost, a simple order will usually be the place to start:
- Traditional king cake
- DIY decorating kit
- Two-day shipping when appropriate
- One generic gift message
- No personalized inserts
- A clean and verified recipient list
- Flexible shipping dates
- Early-season delivery
- Order planned well in advance
That doesn’t mean every bakery will discount that order.
It simply removes many of the things that add labor, shipping expense and complexity.
From there, you can decide which upgrades matter most to your company and your recipients.
Talk to the Bakery Before Placing a Large Order
Large king cake orders are not simply bigger versions of individual online orders.
They are small fulfillment projects.
The best approach is to contact the bakery early, explain exactly what you are trying to accomplish and ask what process works best for them.
Find out:
- What qualifies as a bulk order?
- Do they provide a recipient spreadsheet template?
- What cake and flavor options can they ship?
- Do they offer DIY and iced cakes?
- What shipping methods are available?
- Can you include a gift message?
- Can you supply a printed insert?
- Are personalized inserts possible?
- Can other items be added to the package?
- How are tracking numbers provided?
- What happens with incorrect addresses?
- What is the weather-delay policy?
- Is any special pricing available?
Most importantly, don’t assume every bakery works the same way.
They don’t.
A bakery that ships thousands of king cakes every Mardi Gras season has developed its own production schedules, shipping procedures, order forms and policies.
Learning those rules early—and making your order easy for the bakery to execute—is one of the best things you can do to make a large king cake shipment successful.
Planning a Large King Cake Order?
A large corporate king cake order is ultimately about more than cake. You may be thanking a longtime customer, recognizing employees, strengthening a business relationship, or simply sharing a little New Orleans with people important to your company.
When that gesture involves hundreds of recipients and a substantial investment, it deserves to be planned carefully.
Start early, choose the bakery carefully, and give them the information and flexibility they need to make your gift look as thoughtful when it arrives as it did when you decided to send it.