Custom Food Packaging

Cake Boxes

Custom cake Boxes produced to your size and substrate, with printing and finishing handled in one run.

Minimum order: 100 units
Production: 3–5 business days
Construction: folding carton
Delivery: US, UK, Canada, Australia

Cake Boxes shown as a finished custom-printed pack

No obligation

Quote this by the case

Name, email, phone and what you are packing and the volumes you run. Attach artwork if you have it. We reply with a specification and a written price, usually within one business day.

What cake boxes have to cope with

Cake Boxes hold a whole iced cake that must not touch any wall or lid on the way out of the shop. That is the starting point for the specification, because lid span is the structural problem. Past 10 in square the lid needs a heavier caliper than the base or it will sag onto the decoration.

In service they are used for bakery counters where the box is carried flat by a customer, often on a car seat.

Where cake boxes are actually used

Cake Boxes are specified for bakery counters where the box is carried flat by a customer, often on a car seat. Lid span is the structural problem. Past 10 in square the lid needs a heavier caliper than the base or it will sag onto the decoration.

Bakery counters where the box is carried flat by a customer, often on a car seat
Shelf display in specialty retail
Subscription and gift sets
E-commerce inner packaging

The substrate for cake boxes

Base and lid are often specified differently: 18pt or heavier on the lid to stop it sagging, and a lighter base since nothing is pressing on it.

The options we would consider for this format are below; lid span is the structural problem. Past 10 in square the lid needs a heavier caliper than the base or it will sag onto the decoration.

12pt SBS paperboard
14pt SBS paperboard
16pt SBS paperboard
18pt kraft board
recycled CCNB board

Printing cake boxes

Full-coverage dark ink on a lid shows every handling mark. On cake boxes a lighter ground with a printed border ages far better on a shelf.

Offset lithography, Digital press, Flexography are all available for this format. Run length usually decides which is cheapest: digital removes the plate cost on short quantities, offset and flexo overtake it at volume.

Finishing cake boxes

Full-coverage dark ink on a lid shows every handling mark. On cake boxes a lighter ground with a printed border ages far better on a shelf.

Every finish listed here is its own pass through the line, so each one is priced on its own rather than folded into a single figure.

Gloss lamination
Matte lamination
Soft-touch lamination
Spot UV
Foil stamping
Embossing
Debossing
Aqueous coating

Sizing cake boxes

6, 8, 10 and 12 in square are the standard footprints, with 4 to 6 in of height depending on tiers.

Send the contents rather than a box size. The common error is ordering by cake diameter rather than cake diameter plus board — a 10 in cake on a 10 in drum needs an 11 in box.

Holding cake boxes before service

The lid bows down in the middle under its own span and touches the icing, which is why a large cake box needs a centre support or a deeper wall.

Paperboard also absorbs moisture from the air until it equalises with its surroundings. If stock sits more than about six weeks in unconditioned space, a moisture-resistant coating is worth its small premium.

Preparing artwork

Supply artwork on the dieline we send you, with 3 mm bleed past every trim edge and all text held 4 mm inside the fold lines.

Supply a print-ready PDF or vector file with fonts outlined and images at 300 dpi. Our prepress team checks every file before a proof is issued. The check that catches most files is type sitting too close to a crease, which is easier to move at layout than at proof.

What we need from you

Start with dimensions and quantity. If you already run something similar, a physical sample tells us more in a minute than a specification does in a page.

You approve the quote, we send the dieline, prepress proofs it, and production follows. The proof stage is where changes are still free.

What buyers get wrong with cake boxes

The common error is ordering by cake diameter rather than cake diameter plus board — a 10 in cake on a 10 in drum needs an 11 in box.

The rest of these come up often enough across the format to be worth stating plainly.

Specifying board weight without saying how hot or greasy the contents are.
Forgetting that a pack carried at an angle in a courier bag behaves differently to one on a counter.
Choosing a vented lid for a dish that needs to stay hot, or a sealed one for a dish that needs to stay crisp.
Ordering a year of stock that then sits through a humid summer.

Testing the fit first

We can produce a plain unprinted sample so you can check the fit and structure of cake boxes before committing.

Sample costs are normally credited against the production order.

Reference

Cake Boxes at a specification level

Product	Cake Boxes
Category	Custom Food Packaging
Construction	Die-cut, creased and seam-glued
Board thickness	12pt – 18pt depending on product weight
Ships as	Flat-packed, glued one seam
Materials	12pt SBS paperboard, 14pt SBS paperboard, 16pt SBS paperboard, 18pt kraft board
Printing	Offset lithography, Digital press, Flexography
Finishes	Gloss lamination, Matte lamination, Soft-touch lamination, Spot UV, Foil stamping
Minimum order	Minimum order is 100 units on any format, and unit cost falls sharply as the quantity rises.
Lead time	3 to 5 business days after artwork approval
Shipping	Across the US, UK, Canada and Australia

What you get

What matters in service

Sized to the contents

6, 8, 10 and 12 in square are the standard footprints, with 4 to 6 in of height depending on tiers.

What goes wrong in service

The lid bows down in the middle under its own span and touches the icing, which is why a large cake box needs a centre support or a deeper wall.

What it is specified for

Specified for bakery counters where the box is carried flat by a customer, often on a car seat.

What decides the job

Lid span is the structural problem. Past 10 in square the lid needs a heavier caliper than the base or it will sag onto the decoration.

This format sits in our custom food packaging range, alongside 33 other made-to-order formats.

Answers

Cake Boxes: service and food safety

Specification, minimums and lead times for cake boxes.

What size cake box do I need for a 10 inch cake?

An 11 in box, not a 10 in one. The cake usually sits on a drum or board that adds half an inch each side, and you want clearance so the icing never touches a wall. Send the drum size rather than the cake size.

Are these food-contact compliant?

We specify food-contact compliant boards and inks where the pack touches food directly. Tell us whether contact is direct or through a liner for cake boxes, because it changes which stocks are available to you.

How do you stop grease showing through?

A grease-resistant coating or a greaseproof liner. Untreated board will always strike through eventually with hot, oily food — that is a property of the material rather than a quality fault, and it is inexpensive to design out.

Do cake boxes arrive flat or assembled?

Flat and glued along one seam, so they pop open on your packing line. That keeps freight cost down considerably compared with a pre-assembled structure.

What is the minimum order for cake boxes?

A flat 100 units on any format. Most folding cartons in this range are quoted from 100 units upward because unit cost falls sharply above that, but the minimum exists so you can validate a structure first.

How long do cake boxes take to produce?

3 to 5 business days after artwork approval, plus freight. Folding carton runs with applied finishes can take longer because each finish is a separate pass, and we confirm a firm date in writing with the quote.

What do cake boxes cost?

Prices start from $0.30 per piece for large-volume orders. For this format the biggest levers are quantity, print route, board grade and how many finishing passes are involved. We quote each element separately so you can see where the money is going. Finishing passes are the lever buyers most often underestimate: each one is a separate run through the line.

Can I see a sample first?

Yes. We can send a plain unprinted sample so you can check the fit and structure, or a printed prototype for colour and finish. Sample costs are normally credited against the production order. Worth running a few through your actual line rather than checking them by hand: fill speed and hot contents find fit problems that a desk check does not.

Can you match packaging we already use?

Send the current specification or a physical sample and we will quote to match it rather than proposing an alternative you would then have to re-approve internally. Tell us the coating on the pack you are matching too. Grease and moisture resistance are not visible in a sample and they change which stocks we can quote.

Where do you deliver?

All 50 US states, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, on the same timeline everywhere: 3 to 5 business days of production after artwork approval, then 5 to 7 business days in transit. Every run is made to order and shipped directly to your address rather than pulled from stock, so you receive current production rather than whatever has been sitting in a warehouse. Freight is costed separately by weight, volume and destination. If stock is going into a kitchen or a service counter rather than a warehouse, tell us — case sizes that a single person can lift and store matter more there than pallet efficiency.

Can I order cake boxes in a custom size?

Every run is cut to your dimensions — there are no stock sizes here. Send the product measurements rather than a box size and we will build the folding carton around them, then send a dieline template you can design onto.

What happens after I approve the quote?

We issue a dieline template sized to your product, prepress checks your artwork against it, and a proof comes back for sign-off. Nothing runs until you approve that proof, and folding cartons then take 3 to 5 business days.

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