HI all, I have to do this wedding cake in October...the design is not a problem, but I am wondering about the best to tackle the stacking of this cake. Do I just use regular dowels in that very bottom layer? Should I have to use more support than normal since its just a single layer? The large middle section appears to be 3 or 4 layer and I'm wondering if I should put dowels in the bottom half to take some of that weight off the lowest single tier. I'm just concerned of too much weight being on that single layer bottom tier.

TIA!

Wilton advises using the wider plastic dowels on larger stacked cakes. Remember, the cake does not actually sit on the tier below, it sits on the dowels. I think if you used the wider plastic ones - it will help distribute the weight of the upper tier more evenly (if that makes sense lol)

Thanks so much! Do you mean like the bubble tea straws? I normally use the wooden dowels on my stacked cakes so Im not too familiar with the plastic ones.

On that middle double barrel tier I would place a cake board in the middle of it and use bubble t straws in both the lower and upper half of it.

Hope I'm not confusing you.

In other words...
Treat the middle double barrel as if it were two tiers even though it's just one.

I have used bubble tea straws only once but it was a success. It's the 3tier blue cake in my pics. (the middle tier was only a 1 layer cake too). I know Wilton sells the larger plastic dowel rods at Michael's. They almost look like the columns for between tiers. They are usually right beside the wooden ones.

@cakestyles, I actually told the customer I was going to put that middle section on two cake boards because she wanted two separate flavors in that double barrel, so you totally make sense!

@Paula, I think I have seen those, and that actually makes more sense than using the small wooden ones I normally use. Many thanks!

Awesome!

Yes the Wilton plastic dowels would be perfect for that bottom layer since they're about 1/2" in diameter and will support the upper tiers perfectly.

That's a very pretty design, have fun making it!

Thank you ladies so much. I knew I would get an answer here

Starting from the bottom up, use straws in the lowest tier; for the extra tall tier, make two 2 layer tiers exactly the same size, doweling (w/straws) the lower of the two, then ice them as one cake. Probably no ned to dowel for the upper tier as there is really no weight there being it is a single layer.
The way I see this the bottom is a 2x12", then two 8x4" tiers topped off with a 6x2 round.

Hi Kakeladi! Thank you! My plan was a 12 inch X 2 inch single layer bottom, two 9 inch cakes for the middle barrel and then a single 6 X 2 up top.