I want to make a 3-D cake using a center pole stucture. I see them use a center pole all the time on cake challenge, but I don't know what to use to support each cake going up. My plan is to have a sculpted football helment on bottom, a football on top of that, and then an orange inzone marker on the top. It will stand about 2 1/2 ft. I have searched everywhere online and cannot get detailed instuctions. Cake stackers can make a custome cake stand but I don't want to spend the money & I don't have the time (it is due Dec 19th) Thanks for any advise you can give.

This is the only post I've ever seen about how that kind of thing is done. If you click on the pictures, they get really large.

http://jessicakesblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/princess-dress-form-cake.html

Thank you for the help & I enjoyed looking at that blog too

The easiest way I know of would be to use threaded rod for the center post. Anchor the threaded rod in a flange secured to a wood or masonite board weighty enough to balance your finished cake. Cut a schedule 40 pvc "sleeve" to slide down over the threaded rod - the sleeve is the height of your tier plus whatever decorating space you need. Then your next cake board (again, substantial, not cardboard, and drilled out ahead of time to fit) will sit on the pvc sleeve and not drop down. As an extra measure, you can buy a fender washer to slide down the threaded rod to sit on top of the pvc sleeve - this will give you a little extra width and security. The pvc sleeve can be cut with an angle for topsy-turvy kinda like the Cake Stackers angled spacers. Cake Stackers is a wonderful system - well worth the expenditure, BTW

There's also this stand:

http://www.caljavaonline.com/cakestudy1-bround-lg.htm

There was a thread about it some time ago. This is the thread. Big pictures are there. Maybe you could build something like that.

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopic-628805-0-days0-orderasc-.html