I will be flying from Toronto to Tampa this weekend and I want to bake a cake and take it in my carry on so I can surprise my boyfriend on his birthday. My concern isn't whether it will travel well (I'm going to freeze the layers and ice it there) but whether there will be any problem getting it through security. Your thoughts?

kireland, I wouldn't freeze the layers, then wrap them ... you will have a soggy mess! Just bake them at the last minute and cool, then wrap well ... it should be fine. Someone in my family just took banana bread, wrapped in Saran wrap, all the way to China. No problem, nobody objected. They took it in their carry-on. Good luck ... hope an agent doesn't decide to eat your cake!

Dont' know of anything official, but people bring food on board with them all the time. If you can bring a sandwich, I see no reason why you can't bring a cake.

I travel with food often....it's no problem. Just don't overwrap the cake just in case they want to take a look. Usually security is great about being careful...just ask them not to turn it sideways when it goes through the x-ray machine.

My mother got a free frozen Butterball turkey from her local supermarket & took it on her flight from from NJ to Minneapolis...it was for a Thanksgiving Dinner.

She carried it on the flight and had no problems at all.

Were you planning on putting a saw inside it? Or a knife? Aunt Ida got stopped for doing that when she went to visit Uncle Fred at the prison.

Everythings a joke to patrick.
10,000 comedians out of work and he's trying to get a laugh

Thanks to everyone for the quick replies. It's funny - I was actually thinking that someone in security might want to tear it apart to make sure there was nothing sharp hidden inside (I guess my mind is a bit warped like Patrick's), but I suppose that's what the x-ray machine is for!

I'm going to go for it an hope it arrives in one piece. Although I guess icing goes along way in smoothing out the bumps! I'm also hoping to ask the airline attendent to deliver a drink from a secret birthday admirer - but given how busy (and hence cranky) they can be this might be the more difficult task.

Thanks again everyone!

Why not put a small, dirty nuke in the cake?
That's well within many terrorists' capabilities.
M

nice comment, thread killer.

I have to admit it, but the first thing to enter my mind after reading your question was the same as Patrick's. He just said it funnier.

Just a curiosity question for Bonniebroad - was there a particular reason your family member took banana bread to China? My grandmother did that the several times she traveled there and I always wondered why that but never asked.

She was visiting someone in China who had visited here, been to my house and eaten/loved my Hawaiian Banana Bread .... When asked what she wanted brought to her from the U.S., she said cheese and my banana bread... I was very flattered!

kireland, I had this same question a year ago when I went to London to visit my daughter who was in school there. I actually baked two pound cakes (one for my daughter and one for friends we were staying with) and wrapped them with plastic wrap and then put them each in a bakery box. I carried them on in a shopping bag and told the security screeners what they were.

Unless you bake like my sister-in-law, the x-ray machine will readily show what it is.

I received only pleasant comments from the screeners and a lot of teasing about confiscation and testing.

Go for it.

So, Bonnie, what's the recipe for that Hawaiian Banana Bread?
Mahalo

Just for you, cmcfong!

HAWAIIAN BANANA BREAD:

3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 and 1/4 cups chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups mashed ripe bananas
1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine first 5 ingredients; stir in nuts. Combine remaining ingredients; add to flour mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.

Spoon batter into 2 greased and floured 8-1/2 by 4-1/2 by 3-inch loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans, and let cool on wire racks.

I can vouch for Bonnie's recipe!! I can't wait for the weather to cool off just so I can bake it again!

Good luck, Kireland, with transporting your cake.

mmmm, and I have some bananas that are about a day away from becoming banana bread---thanks, Bonnie!! Do they freeze ok?

OWJ, they freeze beautifully!!! Seetheworld, you say the sweetest things ... so glad you like my recipe!

I have the banana bread receipe from the time you gave it before BonnieBroad and thought of baking it this weekend. It sounds fantastic.