Iam making a prescription pill bottle for a customer due thursday. It will be 3 6" cakes and a 7" on top for the lid. I stacked all my layers up to see how i liked the proportion... and it seems a little top heavy and i haven't even filled it yet...
So here is what I am thinking... either trim down the 7" layer to 6" and use a thicker band of fondant around the top or dowel it with 2 long dowels all the way through the cake into the board. My customer is driving the cake 300 miles to his daughter's graduation, I would die from embarrassment if it fell over on him before he got it there... HELP!

Whether 7" layer or not, I vote for the dowels going all the way through the cake no matter what.

If you could somehow permanently attach the dowel to the board (I see Duff do this sometimes with a drill) even better for the drive.

what sugarmomma said

You are going to need more support in that cake. I'd be okay with three 2" layers as a tier with no cake board. What I would do is to stack your three 6" layers and insert dowles and put a cake board under your 7" layer. This way you will have some structure to support the top so it won't fall over or crack.

Oooh.. I just saw that the customer will be driving long distance with it.. DEFINTELY use a central dowel. What I would do is cut a piece of 1/4 plywood (not pressure treated and made of a hardwood like maple) or masonite and sink a 1/4" hole into it 1/2 way through and insert the dowel right into that. Cover the board with fondant so it looks nice and the cake won't touch the board. poke a 1/2 inch hole in the center of your boards and then when the cakes are being prepped punch a hole in them before you stack them with your 1/4" dowel. Then stack and fill and ice and then drop them onto the cake board onto the central dowel (which is trimmed so it can disappear into the cake. You won't have a hole in the top of the cake and the 1/2 inch hole in the cake boards will give you wiggle room if the holes aren't exactly centered.

I hope this makes sense.. lol.. it does in my tired mind and it's how I did my volcano cake.

I like sugarMomma's idea of drilling the dowels into the board. And I would use three in a triangle shape, it will be a stronger support to help keep it from tipping. HTH! Let us know how it goes!

I did a pill bottle cake w/3-8" & a 10" lid. I used a cake board under the lid layer & I also used a central dowel.