(Please excuse my general lack of knowledge of all things cakey-- I'm very new at this) I just ordered a set of mini cake pans to make tiny tiered cakes like the one here . I'm a College student in a tiny dorm room whose interested in learning the art of decorating for fun, but the only pan I have currently is for cupcakes, and this pan seemed like a good way to practice without making ridiculously large cakes.

Anyway, my question is about when I actually go about making the cake: do I need to use dowels or anything like that inside the cake? Obviously I've never made a real tiered cake but I know you're supposed to with the big ones. Do I need to do anything fancy besides frosting them and stacking them up? Any advice from someone who has used a similar pan would be mad cool. Thanks!

The general rule is that for every 4in in height of cake you need a board with support underneath.

I have a similar set of mini pans and the cakes are small enough that unless you make very heavy cakes you probably won't need support dowels. I still work with each cake on its own board. It's really hard to work on them once they are stacked.

Be advised, frosting the small cakes is actually HARDER than working with a "regular" sized cake. They tend to move around a lot more--no weight holding them in place.

If you really want to practice skills, buy 2 6in pans and make small dessert-sized cakes. A standard cake mix will fill those 2 pans w/a few cupcakes leftover. I'm sure in a college dorm there will be plenty of people willing to eat your practice cakes.

Good luck
Kristy