Can it be done? I need a 6", 4" and 2", so I'm pretty confident that if I used straws as dowels that it would be OK without the denseness of the doctored (sour cream/instant pudding) mixes. I should add that these cakes will be covered in MMF. Thoughts??

as far as stacking goes, as long as you are using the proper supports, the cake isn't holding up the next cake the supports are, so you can really stack anything. As far as if the cake will support the mmf that will depend on how thick a layer of fondant you put on it.

What kind of straws? Bubble tea straws will work great, but I'm not so sure about regular drinking straws.

what peg said. i've used undoctored cake mixes for 30 years ... no problems ever.

THanks, guys. I just use drinking straws and they've been fine so far. For bigger cake I'd use the bubble tea straws. Because these cakes are so small, I was thinking I should be OK, then indydeb chimed in and gave me the answer I wanted-so kind of you-deb! This cake is should be interesting-stacked, MMF, sugar tiles and cricut with modeling chocolate. Woohoo-I feel like I'm taking a walk on the wild side AND I LIKE IT!