I am making my first tiered cake. The cake is for my family, so it will only be traveling from my fridge to the table, but I think that I need to add supports to the bottom tier because it is a very soft (but yummy) cake.

I was just planning on using dowels. Do you insert the dowels before or after you have put the fondant on the cake? Do you think that I will need a center dowel that runs through all the tiers even if the cake won't be traveling?

I always put the dowels in after I put the fondant on. That way I can get them the perfect height. If you put them in before, they would make smoothing the top of the fondant very difficult and then when you placed the second tier on, it would sink into the fondant until it hits the dowel, which might cause cracks if the fondant on the bottom tier has dried.

Also, I noticed you said fridge to table... I never put fondant covered cakes in the fridge, it's been my experience that once they are out on display, they develop condensation and that can cause running colours, saggy fondant, and if you touch it, finger prints.. I know some people on here have great success putting fondant in the fridge, maybe they can give us a few tips on how to get it to work..

Good luck... Would love to see pictures!!

You don't say what sizes the cakes will be...
a center dowel is NOT needed....that is only suggested when a cake is transported to hold all the tiers together.