SPS=highly overrated as well, once you get a few tiered cakes under your belt. 5 and 6 tier cakes? By all means, yes, SPS. 3 and 2 tier cakes...why? No.

Bubble Tea straws are fabulous and work well for 2, 3 and 4 tier cakes w/ or w/out fondant.

Dowels? Disgusting little pieces of musty wood that will ultimately fail you some day. Straws just don't move around on you. Ever. Unless you're a bonehead and brake quickly or try to carry the cake sideways.

Zespri - KarmaCakes10 makes a good point too. I have a bunch of bubble tea straws on hand for tiered buttercream cakes and for under heavier cake toppers. I couldn't find them in Aus, but got them hella cheap from a Malaysian distributor via eBay.

I have a heeyooooge 8-tier monstrosity coming up in April next year and am thinking of importing the SPS system just for that cake

Evoir, I have searched for them here too, no luck. If you can't find them in Aussie, I'd have no like in NZ! Would you mind sending me the details, I'd really appreciate it...

Bloomin' heck.... eight tiers

I know!! The bride wants the exact replica of the cake lleyton Hewitt and Bec Cartwright had 5 years ago. Look it up sometime - its unbelievable, LOL...

I will see if I can find the details of the straws on my eBay acct - I bought them ages ago

Debi - the general guideline we are taught in Australian courses is one dowel for every 2 inches above. ie if you have a 9 inch tier above a 12 inch tier, you use 4 -5 dowels. This is what I told zespri too, before she made the cake I am glad your experience confirms this too...I have never had a cake shift like that.

This one Evoir? http://www.lleytonhewitt.biz/images/wedding/Picture8.jpg ? This is the only picture I could find...

I wouldn have dowelled the cake the same way that you did, and I don't use a center dowel at all. I don't know if this was mentioned anywhere before, but it's more secure to deliver a cake when it's cold, refrigerate it beforehand even if it has fondant on it. I deliver stacked three-tiered cakes all the time, but only if they've been refrigerated. If I don't have the fridge space I stack two tiers and assemble the third on site. For four-tiered cakes I stack two and assemble the last two on site.

If the cake is cold it's more solid and won't be as likely to shift and move in transit.

I like bubble tea straws. I use 1 per two inches on top, plus one. (So, to support a 10 inch cake, I use 5.

So easy to cut!

And I do like to refrigerate before transporting.

I love a center dowel, even with just two layers. Call it my "piece (of wood) of mind".

LisaPeps - that's the one!

The center dowel would have kept it together...I usually set them together with royal icing too. Setting up on sight always is the safest bet

I had to learn the hard way, always dowel the center of the cake. I also would have put more dowels in the bottom tier. The cake looked beautiful! What flavor was it? It looked yummy.

SPS - not overrated at all. I don't have to worry about cake sliding, I don't worry about cake collapsing, I don't have to stack onsite and I don't worry about customers coming in to pick up their own tiered cakes, usually party cakes. I give them driving advice but I hope things make it okay, but I know that a dowel isn't going to shift or a cake slide off.

I HATED making tiered cakes before SPS and now, we often deliver 5 tiered cakes already stacked. I like to decorate after cakes are stacked most of the time and with SPS, it's not a problem for me to stack, decorate and then deliver.

You can never go wrong with SPS. As far as costing more, I charge my customers for it and no one has ever complained.

tracy - I wish there was a cheap way to get it here in Australia...I think I'd be a convert

I get mine on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320534602442&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Are you sure this was a cakin issue or a driving issue? I looks to me that possibly someone might have turned a corner to fast. Either way...sorry this happened and the cake was lovely.

AI need help! I'm trying to understand why has my wedding cake collapsed the way it did. [IMG][IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3087242/width/200/height/400[/IMG][/IMG][IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3087246/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

AIs it driving issue because my client took the cake themselves. Or is it something else? I put dowel in bottom tier only. Since its only two tier.... Please help

It could be any number of reasons, but I see in the picture where the cake is complete, the bottom tier looks a bit bulgy, so perhaps the cake was a bit soft? Was it hot that day? Did anyone bump the cake? How was it delivered? It looks like your dowels displaced to the right of the cake, which is incidentally where there is a large bulging part on the bottom layer. Did you cut your dowels to exactly the same height?

We would need more information to be able to help you so it doesn't happen again!

p.s. I use SPS on all tiered cakes, it is a no-fail, foolproof way of stacking. 

When you say dowel...do you mean just one? tell us how you assembled the cake step by step. This thread is 3 years old

I enlarged it so my old eyes could see better. There are definitely issues in the first pic so I am going with a structural issue. Was this your first wedding cake? Was it your wedding cake. I love the design idea

There's definitely more than one dowel, I can see them (white plastic ones I think)

Sorry, I only just saw the client was driving. Where did they have the cake in the car (floor, seat, trunk...)?

Even if they were driving there were problems with the cake before hand.

AIt was inner daughter lap. Yes my first wedding cake but i have made tiered cakes before (anniversary, castle). Yes, I meant to say dowels ( sorry am little upset because of my cake) and it was hot today. And I don't put my cakes in fridge once I put fondant on, it makes my cakes sweat. But I kept in cool dark place.my client collected at 1:30pm, and kept in her dinning room ( she said that's the coolest place in her house ). The venue was I think from her house probably be 30-40 mins. Dowels, I use plastic ones, cut them same size as the cake. Used 6ish cut dowels. And top tier was placed on top but I didn't put any dowel through my second tier.

AThank you :) I loved it too, such a same it collapsed :"(

AYes it was collected by my client in the afternoon, I advised her to keep in a cool place but not in fridge. Fridge makes my cake sweat. I had put 6ish dowels, cut same size as the cake. Top tier was placed on with any tiers

ACake was in my client daughters lap. She was holding it in the car

AI meant, 6 cake size plastic dowels