I'm making a two-tier for my uncle's 50th birthday. The design is all my idea, and I set forth the tiered thing as a challenge to myself. I only bake for friends and family, so whatever I decide to do is the only practice I get. I've never done a tiered cake before.

I'm making a scratch strawberry cake with strawberry fruit filling, coated in SeriousCakes' BC and decorated with a poker theme.

The tiers will be a 6" square and a 9" square, set at opposite angles, with two layers each.

Any tips on keeping it from collapsing? I don't want hard cake, but I want it to hold up. Does my 6" need to sit on a greaseproof board?

I live in Oklahoma, and it's already in the humid 90's during the day here. The cake day is Sunday, 6/28.

Your six inch cake will need a board and at least four dowels. The texture of the cake doesn't matter that much because the supports will be holding up the top tier.

I use foamcore board and wilton's hollow plastic dowels (cut it all to the size you need). I usually wrap the foamcore in plastic wrap or foil because the ones I buy don't come all wrapped up.

im with texas rose 4 or 5 hollow dowels and a good board and you should be fine just make sure your dowels are in straight and your good im sure youll be fine

CUt the first dowel - then pull that dowel out and cut all the remainging dowels from that one - it is vital that all the dowels be the same height - and make sure they are inserted straight. I use the bubble tea straws for a cake that size (they can be cut with scissors!)

Make sure your cakes are centered on the board - (I use foamcore for mine - 1/2 inch for the base cake and 1/4 inch for the ones on top of that)

If you use cake boards instead of foamcore make sure the cake boards are "greaseproof"...If they are just regular cake boards, you MUST wrap them entirely in heavy duty foil or they can get soggy and saggy. even if your cake is dowelled. [/b]