Custom Bakery Boxes and Cake Boxes

Yes, The Best Price Boxes makes custom cake and bakery boxes with no minimum order, and we will beat any written quote you already have. Sizes run from a single 6 inch cake box up to a 14 inch sheet cake box, and we cut any size you need. Bakery boxes are sized from the product plus clearance, not from a catalogue. The working rule for a round cake is the diameter plus about two inches on the footprint and the height plus one to two inches of headroom, so nothing touches the lid and the frosting survives the journey.

Custom cake and bakery box specs

Sizing a cake box

Start with the cake board or drum, not the cake. The board is the widest thing going in, and it is what the box actually has to clear.

The working rule is footprint equal to the board diameter plus roughly two inches, and interior height equal to the finished cake height plus one to two inches. That headroom is what stops a piped border or a topper being flattened when the lid closes, and it is the dimension bakeries most often cut too fine.

Measure your own boards and your own finished heights before ordering. Decorated cakes vary far more than plain ones, and a topper adds height the recipe does not.

Paperboard or corrugated

This is the decision that decides whether a cake arrives intact.

Paperboard is fine for cupcakes, pastries, cookies, small counts and anything carried on a flat hand or set on a car seat. It is light, it prints beautifully and it costs less.

Corrugated is the right answer for anything heavy, anything tall and anything a customer will carry by the box rather than by the base. A decorated cake has real mass, and the box will be picked up by its sides. A paperboard box under that load flexes, the base bows, and the cake slides. E flute gives you stiffness with a good print surface. B flute gives you more strength for large or tiered work.

The tell is simple. If the box will be carried more than a few steps with the product in it, use corrugated.

Grease, steam and windows

Bakery product releases both fat and moisture, and each needs a different answer.

Grease migrates into the board from anything fried, buttery or high fat, and on plain uncoated stock it shows as a dark ring within the hour. Specify grease resistant or clay coated board for pastries, donuts, croissants and anything laminated with butter. It is worth knowing that grease resistance in paper packaging was historically achieved with per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, and that several US states have now banned intentionally added PFAS in food packaging. Ask your supplier to confirm the board has none. We supply that confirmation as a matter of course.

Steam is the other half. Warm product in a sealed box condenses on the lid and drips back down, which softens pastry and dissolves glaze. Small die cut vents solve it for almost nothing. If your box has a film window, vents matter more rather than less, because film traps everything the board would otherwise breathe out.

Windows themselves sell decorated product, and they come two ways. A die cut with a food safe film patch keeps everything enclosed and looks retail. An open die cut with no film reads as artisanal, adds ventilation and costs less, but offers no dust protection. Either way a window removes stiffness from the lid, so on larger boxes step the board up a weight or add a stiffening flap.

What bakery boxes are used for beyond cakes

The same construction family covers most of a bakery’s range. Cupcake boxes use the same shell with an insert holding 4, 6 or 12 cups. Cookie and brownie boxes use a shallower version, often with a window. Pastry and croissant boxes prioritize grease resistance and venting over height. Pie boxes need a footprint sized to the pie dish rim rather than the pastry. Bread and loaf boxes are usually longer and narrower and frequently unlidded with a paper band instead.

Printing one shell in several depths is usually cheaper than printing several unrelated designs, and it keeps a bakery’s shelf looking coherent.

What a bakery box will not do

It is not a shipping box. Paperboard and even corrugated bakery boxes are for handing over a counter or a short delivery run. If you ship baked goods, the bakery box goes inside a proper shipping box with an insert holding it level, and the product itself needs to be one that survives transit.

It is also not a substitute for a cake board. A cake set directly on a box base will stick, tear and be impossible to lift out.

Related packaging

See bakery boxes for the full range, donut boxes, window boxes where the product does the selling, and food boxes for takeaway formats.

Frequently asked questions

Get a quote for custom cake and bakery boxes

Tell us the products, the board sizes you use, the finished heights including decoration, and whether customers carry the box or you deliver it. Design, samples and shipping are free, there is no minimum order, and we will specify the grease barrier and the board grade rather than leaving them out to make a number look better.