AHI! I am pretty new to the cake world and had a question abou dowels. I am making a three tier cake. I am stacking a 6, 8, and 12. I bought wooden dowels and plan to put 5 in the 12 inch. Will this be enough? I noticed thick round plastic dowels at the store...are those better? The ones I bought are thin wood ones.

You should look into the SPS cake system, the pieces aren't expensive and it will save you a lot of headaches when it comes to stacking and moving your cake. 

AThank you so much for the help!!

A[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3207681/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

I made this for my daughter last week...it's a 12,9,3 tier...I used 4 of the plastic dowels for the bottom and 3 for the middle tier....the plastic ones are easier for me bc I can cut them with a steak knife...the sodden ones were a bit too much for me...my opinion though :-) but I don't think I'll ever use the wooden ones again

AThank you! I have three other cakes to make so I decided to test out both the plastic and wooden dowels. Thanks again everyone!

You really should look into getting the SPS system. It will save you A LOT of stress of worrying whether or not the cake will tip over, collapse, or slide.

Instructions for it here: http://media.cakecentral.com/files/sps_104.pdf

and you can buy it here: http://www.globalsugarart.com/bakery-crafts-pillars-plates-sps-system-c-886_887.html

The cakes must each be on their own cardboard as part of the support system as well.

A

A

Yes of course. I had some people tell me that card board would not be needed as long as i had dowels but I feel a lot more comfortable with the card boards.

No, you have to have the cardboards under each tier.  Of course, i also highly recommend SPS!  See my signature line for ordering info.

There are a lot of things in caking that are up for differing opinions...scratch vs mix, freeze or not to freeze, how to  price, etc.  Having each tier on a board is not.  Each tier of 3-5 inches high or so must be on it's own cardboard or foamcore or something like that.  In addition the dowels, either wooden or plastic, or straws are used.  The whole purpose of the dowel system is to keep the weight of your 8 inch cake from squishing your 12 inch cake, and to keep the 6 inch cake from squishing the 8 and 12 inch cakes.  Picture a table, the legs of the table are like the dowels/straws.  The cardboard is like the horizontal table top.  Now using just the legs of the table, set something on it...doesn't work, it falls through.  Same thing with cake.  If you set your 8 inch cake onto the 12 cake with only dowels, the dowels will just poke up into the 8 inch as the weight of the 8 inch  pushes down on the 12 in.  Now instead put the 8 inch on a cardboard.  Set that cake with cardboard onto the doweled 12 inch cake.  The weight of the 8 inch is held up by the dowels/cardboard (like a table) so the weight of it doesn't squish the 12 inch.  I hope I explained that ok.

SPS does the whole table top thing to avoid squishing of the lower tiers and also prevents lateral shifting.

A

You explained that very well. Thank you! Something about not using cardboard made nervous in the first place and now I know exactly why! Thank you for your help!

ATh

Thank you Leah!

A[quote name="denetteb" url="/t/769246/three-tier-cake#post_7495205"]There are a lot of things in caking that are up for differing opinions...scratch vs mix, freeze or not to freeze, how to  price, etc.  Having each tier on a board is not.  Each tier of 3-5 inches high or so must be on it's own cardboard or foamcore or something like that.  In addition the dowels, either wooden or plastic, or straws are used.  The whole purpose of the dowel system is to keep the weight of your 8 inch cake from squishing your 12 inch cake, and to keep the 6 inch cake from squishing the 8 and 12 inch cakes.  Picture a table, the legs of the table are like the dowels/straws.  The cardboard is like the horizontal table top.  Now using just the legs of the table, set something on it...doesn't work, it falls through.  Same thing with cake.  If you set your 8 inch cake onto the 12 cake with only dowels, the dowels will just poke up into the 8 inch as the weight of the 8 inch  pushes down on the 12 in.  Now instead put the 8 inch on a cardboard.  Set that cake with cardboard onto the doweled 12 inch cake.  The weight of the 8 inch is held up by the dowels/cardboard (like a table) so the weight of it doesn't squish the 12 inch.  I hope I explained that ok. [/quote

Quick question for you. Forgot to add this in my other reply to you. The dowels i bought are 1/4 inch...are these thick enough for an 8 inch to sit on a 12 inch?