I have never done this but I am wondering if you could pre-piearce them with the dowel so they already have a hole in it so that when its time to put the rod through, it will slide in striaght away?

If you sharpen the dowel to a point (I use a clean pencil sharpener just for this, not for pencils! it will go thru the cardboard or foamboard fairly easily without pre-piercing.

Good luck!

I just made a 16" Elmo so the center dowel had to go through many layers and 3 boards. I put holes through the center of each board then when I put the cakes on the board I took a dowel and pushed it up through the hole in the board and through the cake. I then lined all the holes up as I was stacking using a shorter dowel to keep them in line as I worked my way up.

I was afraid with how tall this was and the fact the neck was smaller to hammer a dowel through in the end; but next time on a smaller cake I'm going to do what djs328 suggested. I may still put small holes through the boards to make it easier to go through.

Whittle the tip of one dowel to a point with a knife and then you can gentle hammer the other end as you insert it through the cake. You'll meet a bit of resistence with each board you hit, but the sharpened dowel will go through the boards without problems when you tap the other end with the hammer.

Putting holes in ahead of time sounds like a great idea to me. But I worry that I would get the dowel in the right spot and miss the holes completely! lol

I've hammered a dowel thru a 5 tier cake and it went thru all layers just fine. Having to line up pre-drilled holes would drive me nuts.

I do pre-drill my holes, but I fix my dowel to the base board and lower the cakes down over the dowel, as opposed to driving it through the cake after it's assembled (I use masonite circles, so I have to do it this way).

The one time I tried to "pre-drill" my holes, they did not line up, so when I put in the center dowel, the tiers had to shift to get the dowel through, and then the tiers were no longer centered! I'll NEVER do that again!!!

I sort of work backwards.

I use a masonite board [1/2 inch thick] that I paint the outer rim with food grade paint [just the part that will show beyond the cake].

I drill a tiny pilot hole in the center of the board. I also drill a tiny pilot hole in the end of a 3/4 inch thick dowel rod.

I cut the dowel to what I believe will be the height of the finished cake minus an inch or two and sharpen the end like a pencil.

I add a bit of wood glue to the hole in the dowel, then screw the dowel to the masonite board....once the glue drives, it is rock solid.

I place all my tiers on foamcore boards when I ice them. Prior to doing that, I make a hole in the center that will slip easily over the 3/4 inch dowel.

I ice and chill the tiers until ready to stack. I cut 6 dowels to the height of each tier [fewer for the smaller upper tiers] and insert. I also cut a parchment circle about 1 inch smaller than the tier to be placed, slide it down over the dowel and smear a bit of icing on it.

Next, I lower the next tier down onto the dowel....I don't make the hole prior to assembly....just impale it!

Since the top tier is often light, it may not want to slide onto the dowel fully....so I insert a wooden skewer into it to help push it down into place.

Once the cake is decorated, back into the cooler overnight. The icing and cake firm up and the wooden support is rock solid.

I box the cake in a large cardboard box and drive away....many times 5 or 6 hours....and there's never been a problem.

I don't ask for anything back...I just add the cost to the cake....the masonite and dowel are very inexpensive.

You can do that but a sharpened dowel can easily go through a lot of tiers.

Geez, you guys do a lot of work. I'm sticking with SPS.