I have found that even thin crisp cookies travel well in the mail if I vacuum pack them into stacks. I use a manual setting on the machine to stop the extractor motor before it mashes them. But, once sealed, together they make a fairly durable unit. I have mailed a layer b-day cake too. I freeze the layers wrapped in parchment. I put the wrapped frozen individual layers in a heavy bag and vacuum seal it, again, using the manual control to get tight package but not one that removes air from the baked goods. The frozen layers have more sturdy structure and are not in much danger of being squashed in the air extraction process. I put the icing in something like a pint-size tub and freeze it. Then I put all the frozen items in my box and cushion them. I agree that marshmallows are cheap, lightweight and effective. So is popcorn and, since all my baked goods are well wrapped I can just load it in loose to shift with the rigors of the trip. On the other end, they can just be tipped out in the yard for the birds or added to compost piles. When my cake arrives it's a DIY project BUT everything is intact and makes up into a nice looking cake that doesn't show the wear of it's voyage. And frozen buttercream arrives in San Francisco thawed but spreadable and perfectly edible with only ordinary First Class postage/speed.

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