So, I am finally doing my first wedding cake this weekend. A 4 tier. My question is, what kind of dowels do you recommend (I usually just use straws when I do two tier cakes) and do I need to use BOTH a cake board AND a separator plate on the three upper layers? I know the board is same size as the cake, but what about the separator plates?
TIA!
I go to the hardware store and buy the dowel rods from there and use hand held bush clippers to trim them to the right size. The ones you buy from wilton are too skinny. I like to have a rather thick one (at least as big as my little finger) in the center and then I'll use some smaller ones about the diameter of a pencil around it. WASH THEM
I use ONLY a cake board. My neighbor uses the cake plates too, but I think tha tis overkill. No need.
At the bakery where i work we always use a seperator plate that is one inch larger than the cake and then use wilton hidden pillars for the support. you would just mark the area on the top of the cake with the plate above it and then trim your pillars to the height of the highest part of the cake. The legs of the plate sit right down in the pillars and as long as you trim the pillars to the same length then your cake will be straight. I also make it a point to put the high side of the bottom tier to the front and alternat high side and low side as i go up to help balance the tiers. I think this is a lot easier than wooden dowels, and you wouldn't need the cake board : just the plate. Hope this helps.
I love the wilton hidden pillars. You can cut them with a knife, too. The pegs of the sep. plates just sit right down inside them. I use the sep. plate to mark and then push pillars in. They are much easier at least for me to get the same length and more sturdy. I do use a cardboard on the sep. plate, because one time, I got my plate back with knife marks all over it. HTH
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