As long as it's supported well, a medium-firm cake should do fine for a stacked cake, right? I have a bride that wants a FIVE tier, stacked cake. She wants white cake, and the recipe calls for cake mix, white chocolate pudding, 3 egg whites, one whole egg, etc. I guess it's just a little firmer than your average cake mix.
Do you think it will be ok to use for a tall stacked cake, if I use the large plastic dowel rods?

...that would be fine, since the weight is supported by the dowels, for the most part, and not by the cake. I would use the hollow plastic dowels, rather than any of the wooden ones. The plastic ones are more stable since they are fatter than the wooden ones.....not to mention, they are WAY easier to cut!

Just dowel it really well and it should be fine. I use the Wilton plactic dowels too MrsMissey you can cut to them length you need and they're very stable.

Oh good, thanks for easing my mind on this. I also like the plastic dowels much better than wooden, although they're a little more expensive, it's worth it to not have to worry about it. Thanks again!

That's the recipe I use all the time! I just did a four tier fondant cake with it and there were no problems! It's such a yummy cake!

I use only spongecakes and wooden dowels. Since the cakes are supported by the dowels, there shouldn't ever be a problem. I've even used angelfood cake once or twice...not a problem!

Great! I'm so glad to hear that it's been done successfully! And yes, peacockplace, it is a really yummy cake!! I think it's the white chocolate pudding that puts it over the top.

Just wondering some more, what is the best way you've found to stack the cake with the plastic dowels? Do I just plop the cardboard rounds on top, or glue them down in some way? Do you use two cardboard rounds taped together for the heavier tiers (12" and larger)? Do you use a long wooden dowel down the center, or could you possibly use the plastic separator plates?

Sorry for the peppering of questions! I really appreciate all your help!

I have used a long sharpened dowel down the center but I cut a small hole in the middle of the cardboard rounds for the dowel to go thru. I read a post where the lady tried to drive the sharpened dowel thru and crushed the cakes and bent the boards ! That could ruin your whole day! The most I have done is three tiers so the experts can fill us in on doubling the boards for such a big cake. I do know you will want to have a very sturdy base that can handle the weight.

Also, is there anything else to that recipe? I would love to know! Thanks! dodi

Here's the recipe:

1 white cake mix (I used DH)
3 egg whites
1 whole egg
1 small box white chocolate instant pudding
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups water or water/milk mixture
1 tsp almond flavoring (optional - I didn't use it)

Bake at 350 F until it springs back when lightly pressed.

It's delicious, and very moist! My husband's favorite so far, and that's really saying something!

I posted that recipe a little while back. I found it on the DH website and changed it a little. There are tons of great recipes there... deffinately worth a look!

Hi,
I would like to try this recipe, but was wondering what filling and icing goes well with it.
Thanks, Emi

Thank you so much APCakes! I can't wait to try it. Also, can't wait to see the cake. When is the wedding?

Hi, emi! I use bavarian cream and butter cream icing. It has been a huge hit!!! Glad you all like the recipe!

dodibug, that's what I'm afraid of! I'll hammer the center dowel in and the circles will bend and the cake collapse!

Peacockplace - oh good, I'm glad I wasn't going crazy! I thought I found that recipe here on CC, but when I went back to look so I could cite it, I couldn't find it. Thanks so much for sharing it, because it's awesome.

This particular wedding isn't until September, but I'm sure I'll be using this recipe a lot before then! And I agree with those of you who worry about breaking the boards when driving the dowel through!! Good idea to poke a hole in previously, but how do you center it and make sure you hit it?

I cut a hole about the size of a quarter (maybe just a bit smaller) right in the center of the board. That gives me plenty of room to make sure I hit the target! Now the very first time I did this I put the dowel thru the top tier and hit cardboard , my heart sank, I felt a little sick and then just moved the dowel just a hair over (without taking it back out) and it went right thru the other tiers with no problem.

Squriiley posted here a while ago that she center dowels from the bottom up. She puts holes in the bottoms of the cake boards and then threads the cakes onto the dowel which is already stuck in the bottom layer.

Well--I tried this technique once and I'm hooked! That's how I've been doing it since and it makes it SO much easer. I just cut the center dowel shorter than the height of the cake.

Also, a tip on cutting wooden dowels is to use dog nail trimmers. The one's with the circle that you stick the nail (or in this case the dowel) in and then squeeze and the cutter goes across it. I tried this and it worked SO well. No sharp, splitting, crooked edges and it cuts perfectly where you want it to. Of course, Ihave a special pair just for this purpose. They stay in my cake box and are/have never been used on any animal.

Lisa

Does it make it easier to get them centered on the bottom tier? It seems like it would. I have the hardest time not messing up the icing on the tiers below when I seat the next tier!!

Heehee, just a few comments.
That cake recipe is fine. However, I disagree that it doesn't matter what the cake texture is, the dowels do the supporting. That is not totally correct. The cake needs to have a texture that is either spongey or dense to support the dowelling in order to be able to support the other tiers.
In a sponge cake or angel food type of cake, the cakes themselves are not heavy, so what they are supporting isn't as heavy.
However if you use a cake mix as per instructions and have several layers stacked, you are taking a chance on the support. This is most especially true with topsy turvy cakes and such.
So if you put a whole pile more dowels that you would normally, yes they will help support. But if you go with the normal amount of dowels and have large cakes and the cakes are covered with fondant or are of a lot of weight and the cakes are not dense enough to support the weight, well the dowelling only helps to a certain degree. What can happen is you can have an earthquake effect where the cake actually cracks around the dowels because it is not dense enough to support the dowels or the other cakes.
I think that generally if you look at any books on stacking cakes, they nearly always recommend that you use dense or pound type cakes. THis becomes more of an issue, the larger and heavier and more tiers the cakes has.
I know of several folks with a lot of experience, myself included, that have experimented with this and have had disasters when using cake mixes as per the box instructions even though the cakes were well boarded and dowelled and levelled and the base was supportive. Interestingly, the middle tier was where the issues with cracking occured, not the bottom tier and not the higher tiers. What happened was that the cake itself cracked where the dowels were.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes