I understand how to put together a stacked tiered cake with the wooden dowel rods. what i don't understand is when I'm ready to put the second and third tiered on do I have a cake board underneath them or have nothing and just put the cake on top of it?

I'm new also, I use the dowels/straws and have a cake card/board under each tier on top so they rest on the dowels and its the dowels supporting the board. Without a board I think the cake would just slide right down on top of the dowels as well squishing the cake. But I would love to know if this is right or if Im just making work for myself.
HanX

Hi and Congrats on your 1st post, penguin22.

Everything you ever wanted to know about cake construction...

Common cake support systems:

http://tinyurl.com/y22z72
(Has illustrations and accurate directions.)

More on SPS:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-561846-.html
(See Leahs post.)

(Illustrated) How to cut level dowels by indydebi:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-434013-.html

Wilton's tieredcake help links:

http://www.wilton.com/cakes/tiered-cakes/

HTH

For a quick and easy answer, yes.. you have to use a cake board (cut to the same size as the cake, unless your using sps) between every layer.

I also run one long dowel rod thru all the layers of the cake for more stability. I remove it when I get where I'm going... and then just fix the top of it.

Hope this helps. Look at the links she posted too.. I'm sure there's lots of great information that can help you.