Wait so you stacked 5 cars onto one transport spot? I did a move from Phoenix to Denver back in 2019 and the dispatcher told me they can fit up to 4 or 5 cars on a single trailer position if they're small enough and you don't care about them getting scratched. The catch is most brokers won't tell you this upfront because they make more money billing per car. The other thing to watch is your insurance, because if they're treating it as one unit and something slides, you might only get paid out for one vehicle. Make sure you got that in writing before the truck shows up.

Congrats on your cake finally not looking like a mountain, welcome to the club nobody wants to join. I just dampen mine, not soaking wet, mostly because I'm lazy and also because a drippy strip on a hot pan is a mess waiting to happen. The pale side is normal too, it's just where the cloth blocks the heat, so rotate your pan once halfway and you'll barely notice.