My friend and I are doing our first wedding cake and its 4 tiers with 3 layers each. I am so afraid the bottem tier will sink under the weight of the top 3 layers. We plan to use WASC for the cake and regular buttercream for filling and icing. It will also be covered with fondant. Normally, we use cardboard between each tier and wooden dowels but I am afraid the cardboard will not hold up for that many layers. We have never done a cake this big. I will be able to assemble the cake on-site.

I normally use the cardboard and wooden dowels, but today I'm going to order the SPS system. I don't know a whole lot about it, but it looks great! You can search for it and there are instructions. Good luck

The supports should support the cake.. meaning each cake will rest on the supports, causing no stress on the bottom tier. The cardboards will be fine .. just make sure you put a long wooden dowel through the cake to ensure that it doesn't move.

I prefer bubble tea straws over wooden dowels. They are much easier to cut and in my opinion, sturdier if you think of the physics of it. A hallow bubble tea straw is less likely to move when submerged w/ cake than a wooden dowel is that has nothing holding it in the specific spot.

I too use the cardboards and wooden dowels. If you are concerned about the larger stacked tiers put 2 boards underneath, just check the way the grooves are going and make sure they are going in different directions. This will help with the cake and also keep it chilled as much as possible.

I ALWAYS refridgerate my fondant cakes without ANY problems.

Hope this helps

Thanks to both of you for the reply. You don't know what this means to me. Where would I find these bubble tea straws?

Just glue two layers of cardboard together. it's done all the time

I have done alot of large cakes and I always use foam board under the cake and sps for the supports. Ever since I started using sps, I dont worry about doing large cakes. Good Luck!

You should be fine, I use cardboards under the cakes, covered in wax paper on both sides..
Here is a video..

So what are bubble tea straws and where do u get them have a 2 or maybe three tier cake for first of june and a 1 1/2 hour car ride, i cant afford sps right now. Need something i can transport easily by myself. Ty

There is a lot of places that have the bubble straws. You can find them in Ebay too.
Edna

You can find them on ebay.. i'd get you a link but it's blocked at work. They are pretty cheap. For about 10 bucks (including shipping!), you can get about 100. They are kinda like slurpee/milkshake straws but a bit wider and super easy to cut!

You can also get bubble straws at most asian grocery stores.

I'm not sure where you live but if there's an Asian food market near you they may have them also.

Oh ok, so they are just bigger in width than regular straws? Or did i get that wrong, still very green here. But am soaking up like a sponge, she cant decide right now if she wants 2 or 3 tiers. Its for a birthday-graduation party, pink and black like my mehndi cake. If its one tier i can travel with that easy but it gets hot here in Tx. I was worried about it staying "up" and "straight" lol. still working out all the kinks. but im liking the straw thing a lot. Ty for all your info.

here's a lot of 172 bubble tea straws on ebay for $11.58 total, that includes shipping cost http://cgi.ebay.com/172-Giant-Boba-milk-Tea-straws-smoothie-Thai-Bubble_W0QQitemZ320358525061QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4a96db2885&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

would a party store or micheals or other craft store have them? Ty in advance for putting up with me.

My husband just got me some at the asian grocery and they were $1.50 for a package of 50. You should check your market.

No michael's / party stores do not carry them to the best of my knowlege. you might want to check your local mall to see if they have a coffee shop/milk shake place that sells bubble tea. i bet they'd give you a few straws to get you through this cake. I know the mall near me sells it at the coffee shop but I order them on Ebay. i just picked up 500 for $30 with shipping and each straw is 12 inches so I can get 2 dowels out of each straw.

Ok, i have never heard of bubble tea. I will check the asian markets that are about a half hour away, or does someone know of a bubble tea in arlington or dallas? Thanks for the help.

If you go to your "Chinatown" you will find little stores/restaurants that sell Bubble Tea. I don't know if the Dallas area has a "chinatown" like you have in Chicago/NY, but it's worth a try

I have a question about the foam board that some use. I have seen it at Michaels and Hobby Lobby and was wondering if it needs to be covered with paper or are they food safe? Sorry about the hijacked thread!

I love the stability of the SPS system- but find the individual "legs" to be very wide.
Do any of you SPS users subtract serving #s because the cake you loose from inserting the wide "legs" - How much do you subtract?

If you use the bubble straws how many do you use? Just the 4 or more?

So here is my plan after reviewing all the post. Use boba straws as support (I like this idea because they are easier to cut), glue two cardboard pieces together and cover each side with wax paper for each tier, and put long wooden dowel down all 4 layers for extra support. Thanks everyone for helping me get a plan.

I haven't tried the tea straws yet but its got to be fighting with cutting the dowels to the perfect length!

SPS fo a three tier cake should be $10 or less. There's a pot upthread commenting on the expensive of the SPS system. Reallyit's very cheap and you just add the cost onto the price of the cake.

No I don't deduct servings for the size of the SPS legs. Frankly, each tier only has four legs in it and that's frequently about half the number of dowels you'd use, so the cake displaced should be about the same. Srsly, this is soooo not an issue.

And to the original poster, if you want a straight cake that you can transport already assembled, then buy SPS. Cheap. Easy. Sturdy. No worries.

Thank you leahs-

where do you purchase SPS? ( i'm trying to order from a particular midwest supllier and having a bit of a problem)