i am making my sons four yr old birthday cake and i want it to be three tier. this will be my first. my question is do i need an sps to stack the cakes. can i use sticks and card board. i dont own an sps. my son has a mild case of down syndrom and i think this will be the first time he realizes that this will be his day. so thanks in advance for any replies

I've done a couple of square 8, 12, 16 stacked cakes before just using the cake cardboard and dowels and it held up fine. I would double up on the cardboards though (tape 3 together for 12"+ sized cakes). You just need to make sure the dowels are all the same height. Good luck!