Hi!
I'm making a two layer cake. Few questions:

1- Do I need to use two cakes for the bottom layer and 2 cakes for the top? Is that standard?

2- Do I need to use dowels or anything else to support the cake at that height?

I am going to buy the cake this weekend and need to know what i need.

Okay...a cake that is double layered means to cakes...one 2 inch layer,and then the other 2 inch layer with icing in between not 2 and 2..then you would have a severly high 8 inch cake and it would fall over..You don't need to use dowels unless you are stacking another tier ontop of the 2 layers.

Do you mean a two TIER cake? Like a wedding cake?

If so, then yes, most often each tier is two baked layers, each baked in a 2" deep pan, which can be put together as is or they can be torted (sliced horizontally) so that you end up with 4 or even more total layers of cake with filling in between.

If you don't want to bake four cakes, you can bake just one cake per tier in a 3" deep pan, tort it at least once and fill. Or do two 2" pan cakes for the bottom tier (so that it ends up about 4" high) and one 3" pan cake for the top tier. The cake will be taller or shorter overall, the proportions be a little different depending how you do it, so it's just how you want it to look and how much time/effort you can put into it.

For a two tier cake that isn't going to travel, you might not need dowels or other supports, but better safe than sorry. Use a piece of cardboard cut to the same size and shape as the cake under the top tier, and stick some dowels or straws into the bottom tier, cut level with the top of the frosting. The cardboard rests on top of the dowels, so the weight of the top tier is not really resting on the bottom tier of cake at all. (I've used cardboard lollipop sticks for small tiered cakes and it works fine. Don't go overboard because you don't want your bottom tier to fall apart from too many holes in it!) Adding a piece of parchment paper between the cardboard and the frosting will let you lift the top tier off for serving without totally destroying the frosting on the bottom tier.

Good luck!

Thanks! I am going to be moving it so I will probably use dowels.