i have been out of the biz for over a year an djust now getting back in. so i went to Michael's an Joann's to get the supports for a stacked cake and i always bought either the pack of dowels or the plastic tube things but i cannot find either of those anywhere like they arn't used anymore. what's up with that? and what can i use?

Use PVC pipe. Buy it at Home Depot or similar stores.
Plastic drink straws - they fat ones you can get from places like BurgerKing are great.
Many will tell you to go Bubble Tea straws - I have never used them - just got mine from BK.
You can ask the manager if you can buy a box from them - most will.
I often would go into the resturant and pick up a big handful and ask if I could buy and usually was told go ahead and take them - it's o.k.
Never hurts to try.

Well, those items are still used....don't know what's up with your stores! You can find the dowels over in the wood craft department.

Lots of decorators use "bubble tea" straws, and others use the single-plate-support system-which is not a Wilton product.

If your stores do not carry these items anymore, you will have to get them online. Oh well. And good to hear that you are back to doing cakes!

Hi Yamber.
I have never used the straws. For larger, heavier cake I prefer the plastic dowels from Wilton. I don't know how much the pvc pipe cost but I guess it will work fine.

thanks everyone! i found the plastic dowels online. those have been my favorite. i like the PVC idea though for heavier cakes.

yea, i went to buy cake stuff since all mine was way old and it's like a whole new world in there lol. there's tons of new stuff and not so much of the old stuff. has anyone used the Duffy fondant?

yamber, let me introduce you to SPS!

I've used Duff fondant...once. I didn't want to mix a bunch of red so I got red Duff fondant to use for a 4th of July hat cake. What a mess. All I wanted to do was make red stripes but it was so soft it kept stretching out of shape everytime I picked up a stripe to put on the cake. It took me 2 hours to do something that should have taken 30 minutes. And the stuff never dried! Even the little bit I left out overnight on the counter was just as soft as when I took it out of the bucket. Yick.

Yep, and it is really greasy. Pretty color so I kept the rest and use it with tylose for gum paste. It is overpriced too.