Okay, I have BIG ideas and yet they always seem to fall flat, lean way too much or just don't work at all. What could I be doing wrong. I dowel the @#$$%^% out of them and they won't stay up right. Does anyone have any tricks for me? Am I using the wrong support in choosing dowels? Example of a lost cause: I haven't posted it yet, but I made a jukebox cake for a sweet 16 and let me tell you it was so cute. It was standing up and everything until two hours before delivery and then it went south. I ended up laying it down. It still looked great and thank goodness it was for a friend who didn't expect it to stand up (in other words I didn't tell her what I was doing). I had 6 dowels in it and they went all the way down clear into the cake board it self. The weight of the cake was just too much. I have had similar problems in the past, but just keep trying. Anyone who has any suggestions would be a complete blessing.

I'm sorry your juke box fell!!

Are you also putting boards between the layers of cake? There should be individually supported boards every four or five inches in height, and then I through-dowel down through the whole thing once it's all stacked. I also use quite a few bubble tea straws most of the time for internal supports (and then sharpened food-safe wooden dowels for the through-doweling) except for things like wedding cakes, in which case I use the Wilton hidden pillars.

You can see how I've got several cakes doweled and supported on my website at www.cakedalaska.com

HTH,
Deanna