I'm making a stacked cake for a wedding (6,8,10,12) and have read that a dowel should be inserted through the layers. It also says that you can go through 2 to 3 layers at a time, so a 4 layer cake should have two dowels. Is this right? And, is it easy to put a dowel through a cake board? I just can't imagine it.
Yes, it is easy. Sharpen one end of your dowel (I used my pencil sharpener) and it goes through the cake and the cake board to the next cake.
Jacqui
Oh, you'll need to tapp on it lightly. You can use a hammer.
Jacqui
I was getting ready to post a question about dowels when I cam across this. How timely!
How does cutting the cake and dowels work? Does someone end up with a dowel in their serving?
Thanks - Joan
Yes, I did a 10" and an 8" stacked cake for my daughter and I was transporting it to her gym where she cheers. I did dowel the 10" cake but I did not put a dowel through both cakes because by the time I had stacked the 8" cake I realized I didn't put a hole in my cake board. Well, needless to say the 8" fell over and off of my 10" cake, taking some of my 10" cake with it. I later found out on this site that you can just sharpen your dowl and tapp it through cake and cake board with out a hole. I tried it on a recent cake and it worked like a charm!
Jacqui
Oh, and before you serve your cake you just remove the dowels or inform the bride or purchaser of your cake that there will be dowels in the cake to be removed.
Jacqui
I started doweling from the bottom up ever since my cake disaster. Second stacked cake and I am insterting the dowel and I am guessing that either the dowel wasn't sharp enough or the freezer paper that I used to cover the cake board for the first layer was too thick - anyway I am pushing in the dowel and the cake board collapsed and 'sliced' the bottom layer in half 
I was able to glue the bottom layer together with some buttercream and had to refrost the entire cake but the lesson I took away from this was dowel from the bottom up - I put the holes in the cake board with a knife and then just slide the cake down.
You will need dowels in each tier. The final dowel is the one that goes thru all the tiers/ down the center in most cases. I've never made holes in my cardboard circles....just sharpen the dowel with a pencil sharpener and hammer it thru every cake. This is the wilton method~ If you can possibly put the tiers together onsite....you won't need the center dowel. This is ideal. Good luck!
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%