Hi there - I am making a three tiered cake for a friens 50th - the cake will be lemon blueberry and the frosting is a lemon cream cheese - I know I have to use some type of dowel - I bought the big one to go down the middle - 1. How do I trim the thing - its too long...2. this really dosen't wreck the cake - it seems so big 3. I believe I have to use smaller dowels at each tier so it does not collapse...do I have to use wood again or is there another alternative. The store I shopped at only had large dowels that looked like drum sticks....

Thank you!!!

To cut the dowel (depending on the thickness) I use a floral pruner or an e-xacto mini saw, I got both at Michael's they are really affordable and work well. I cut them to size before placing them on the cake, and put 5 on each tier (better safe than sorry) . Last, there are lots of dowel sizes you can use, it depends on the kind of support you need, you can even use those bubba straws, they are cheap and work great, as I said, it all depends on how much support you need for your cake. HTH.

Thank you - I have to put a cake board under each layer right?

Yes, do your cakes as you normally do, the bottom one needs a bigger board but the ones on top need to be on the same size board as your cake, lets say you are doing a 10,8 and 6 in. cakes stalked then you need a 12 or 14 for the bottom one, a 8 and 6 in. boards for the rest. I hope this makes sense.