I am always hearing about countries elsewhere using a central dowel or SPS system. I have been told by a UK CC'er that UK bakers don't use central dowels as the boards we use are harder then American ones therefore its not possible. Is this true? Also, has anyone in the UK ever used the SPS system. Can the SPS rods be cut to the right length? And how would you charge a bride to cover the costs. If you put it in the price of the cake, you will simply be making it seem more expensive.

I think that we have more denser cakes and less layers as in we tend to torte our cakes once and other cakes are more gatauex like in their fillings so are less sturdy and need the dowels to support. I would typically dowel the bottom and middle layer of a 10, 8, 6 inch stack but not necessarily the top one depending on the topper. Our boards are quite sturdy and difficult to put a dowel all the way through. Can't help on the sps system though.

by dowelling, you mean you dowel each tier, not put one dowel all the way through the middle and last tier?

Thats right. sometimes i will put large straws under the 6inch or wooden ones if it is all friut cake but occasionaly if there is not much on the top tier I haven't bothered, i just let the fondant set off on the cakes then put in dowels and use a bit of royal icing to secure each cake. I have carried 3 tiers in my boot for over 5 miles over speed bumps with no probs. The 99p shops sell some non slip matting which is great and stops it sliding around in the car(The best 99p I have ever spent LOL). If you are going to do an american style cake I would not recommend dowelling the way described above though.

Thanks Roseiepan for the advise. No, I won't be doing american style cakes. I didn't realise that you need dowels in fruit cakes - they are quite hard. I thought it would take the weight of the cake above.

I dont centre dowel either so far - i just dowel each tier for support for my own peace of mind and yes, our boards are pretty thick so i havent wanted to attempt a centre dowel yet on anything except my mini topsy turveys which are so tiny 6 inch and 4 inch that i dont even use a board to set the top layer on, i just stick it with buttercream and then centre dowel it.

i'm going to have to work something out for when i attempt a fully size topsy turvey though as you cant get away without a centre dowel.

also, yes i think our cakes are denser though i do use an agbay and tort my wedding cakes 5 times and my ordinary cakes 3 times to make a nicer ratio of cake and filling.