Dowel rods do you use for a 10' 8' 6' cake?

Look in the Wilton yearbook, there might be an amount there. good luck

I don't know if this will help, but here it is.
http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/20/04712146/0471214620.pdf

Shelleylynn

If I'm not mistaken there was a post yesterday and someone said they use 1 dowel for each inch of cake. So under the 6" there would be 6 dowels and so forth. HTH

i always do 5 for each layer. 4 corners (or square under a round cake) and the middle.

Marthajo1 - I'm not Shellylynn, but that is from the book Cakes to Dream On by Colette Peters - website
http://www.colettescakes.com/
It is a wonderful and inspirational book - great tips, techniques, and visuals.

for a 6,8,10, i use 4 under each cake. those sizes arent really that heavy to support (you are only supporting the 8 and 6 inch cakes) so place four dowels into the 10 inch to support the 8 inch and place 4 dowels into the 8" to support the 6 inch. drive a tall dowel through all three tiers to hold it together.

thanks ibmoser!

Melysa- or anyone who knows - How do I "drive a tall dowel through all three tiers"? What about the cake plates or rounds?

You sharpen a long dowel, and take a hammer to it!

What!! Are you serious!!!????? Wouldn't that tear up the cake???

It doesn't tear up the cakes. It is a great safety net too.

As for the dowels, I would do more than 4 in all the layers. I keep to the 1 per inch rule. Those cakes get heavy, especially if you are using fillings and such. You can never have too many dowels!


Stephanie

To be able to put the dowell all the way through all tiers wouldnt you be best to use foamboard under each cake? as i have started using foam board myself and a tip given to me was to use skewers or toothpick that i pop right thru the boards and cakes for same affect but must say love the idea of running all way through the cake will do from now on. have had a couple of mishaps so that is the bestest tip ever.. thanks guys...

you could use foamcora or cardboard rounds (yeah this would not work with plastic plates) . after it is all stacked, i sharpen a long dowel. push gently until you feel it touch the cardboard. take a clean hammer (or at least wrap it in a clean towel) and carefully tap it through. push again and tap through the next board. when you get to the end of the dowel (you want it about an inch lower than the cake, ) use another small piece of dowel to place on top of your center dowel and tap with the hammer slowly. this will alow you to push the dowel down under the top of the icing, and then you remove the small extra piece and patch the hole with icing or a decoration. make sure you push the sharpened dowel into the cake drum base (as long as its cardboard or foamcore). the hammer SEEMS scary, but its not bad if you do it gently, you wont even see your cake wiggle when you do it. it will help, seriously!

I use 4 in each cake, no matter what size the cake, unless I am doing a 5-tier cake, then I might put 5 in the bottom tier. SInce I assemble on-site, I never do the dowel-down-the-center. (Plus I always use separator plates between each tier so I couldn't do it anyway).

I'm stacking the 8' on top of the 10' and then I'm putting the 6' on a tier. Do I need to put dowel rods in the 8' cake?

Thank You!

I always use doweling system when doing any stacking. Just to be sure that the cakes don't fall or sink into the bottom cakes.

turtle- How are you supporting the tier? Because the columns I have go down into the cake and support the top tier. so I don't dowel under it. Some tier supports have a base plate (I think) and so then you would have to support that plate. At least that's what makes sense to me.