Hi, I am going to be doing my first tiered cake and it is only going to be a 8-6 inch, I will be using bubble tea straws and then I was going to put a dowel down the middle I as just wondering what size of dowel to buy width wise is there a certain size to buy? Also when stacking this way when I put a straw in the center then do I just put the dowel next to that then hammer through? This cake is being picked up and traveled 2 hours so I wan't to dowel it.
thanks

So you don't have time to get SPS?

Otherwise, don't put a straw in the center - save that space for the center dowel.

I do plan on using it if I do cakes with more tiers I just don't think for this small of a cake it is necessary.

I would just use a normal sized cake dowel since it's a small cake. Just sharpen one end, place in the center, and hammer it into the cake drum.
I place my straws about every 2 inches around the diameter where the smaller cake tier will be.
Edna has a good utube video on cake stacking that may give you a better visual.