Ok, so i finally got a bride tied down on a design for a cake on 14th august - its the butterfly cake on www.maisiefantasie.co.uk except square tiers

My nerves are wrecked - she wants a huge cake (even though its just for 130 guests and shes having a grooms cake too) she wants 4 tiers - im thinking 12,10,8 and 6 ? but im so worried its going to sink in with the weight - i use plastic dowels and have only ever done a 2 tier cake before. i did buy bubble straws too so i was thinking of a combination of both? like stick the straw in and then use a dowel inside the straw?

Any tips would be much appreciated! im thinking each tier will be 3 inches tall as it it a 4 tier i think this would look fine. I actually feel sick with worry, a 3 tier i could cope with (and i actually have my first 3 tier wedding cake that same week )

I'm pretty sure you would do fine. I use a combination of wooden dowels and bubble tea straws. I assume plastic dowels would be better in combination with bubble tea straws.

The main key is that, if you are going to travel the cake stacked, make sure there is a center dowel and that you drive safe.

Good luck Cathy.

You are just having 'beginner's nerves' Everything will be just fine. Are you using fruit cake? I do not like to travel w/such small tiers stacked. I would maybe stack 2 & 2 then put those together on site.

Just be sure you don't over-dowel it, which will weaken the structural integrity of the cake itself. You don't want to turn it into Swiss cheese.

There are quite a few threads about dowels on here that you should be able to find if you do a search. For such a large cake, I'd recommend the big hollow plastic dowels that Wilton sells, or SPS. There's a sticky thread on SPS on the "How Do I" forum page.