I'm second guessing myself so I thought I would ask your opinion on this....

I have a three tier cake due on Saturday. The top 6" tier is to be separated from the bottom two tiers by four wine glasses. I don't want to just put the wine glasses there without support because I think they will sink into the tier underneath from the weight of the top cake. I usually use hollow dowels for support in all my cakes so I'm thinking I'll put the four hollow tubes in where the wine glasses will go, then cover four tiny round cardboard circles with fondant. The weight of the glasses with the top cake will then rest on these little circles laid over the dowels.

Think it will take the look away from the wine glasses? Or, do you think it will look "chunky"? I'm hoping that you will hardly notice the little circles. Maybe I can surround the circles with tiny pearls?

Any advice or comments would be appreciated!

thats what I would do. I did have a customer once not want the circles to show so I put them under the icing and it really stunk!

I would not use four little circles especially if you are trying to make them so small as to not show. What happens when the weight of the cake above causes the circles to poke up into the glass and get stuck? Then you have a crooked cake or one that will collapse (that's assuming you are using wine glasses in an upside down position).

Additionally, four wine glasses won't fit under a 6" cake unless you're planning to use something a lot smaller like flutes (even then, depending on what size cake is below that you are trying to separate, they may take up too much space).

Back in the day, when this was popular, the glasses were placed (upside down) on top of the separator plate. After you press the separator plate down on the cake, the entire surface of the plate is decorated with buttercream shell borders in whichever direction you desire (it hides the ugly plate while also helping to provide a little suction for the wine glasses to stay in place). The glasses won't move during delivery, but absolutely don't try to deliver with a cake sitting on top of that. Good luck!

Thanks Psurrette and CWR for your input. I'm going to have to give this more thought. Thankfully the glasses are not really wine glasses - they are small liqueur glasses so that will help a bit. I have to cover the cake in fondant so I didn't want the (unattractive) separator plate to be visible which is why I'm trying to come up with an alternate plan for support.

The top is square but maybe if I can find something like a pretty glass square or a tiny square mirror or something like that I can put the "plate" over the dowels and that hides the dowels. Then I can place the glasses on the plate. That might work! Now to find the right thing to use.......

Oh, if you are using fondant, that might actually be easier. Which ever plate you decide to use, you can just cover it up with fondant. For example, if you're using a separator plate, just flip it so the pillar pegs are inserted into the cake and the flat surface gets hidden under the fondant. (I've never tried it this way, but I've read that it works for those who have tried it.) If you find a mirror or something similar, I wouldn't think you'd want to try to cover it... not only because it may be too thick and show through, but because I think it would look nice exposed. I hope you find the perfect choice for your project.