Hi Everyone
I will be doing my first wedding cake! I need some info on using dowels.

My cake will be 4 tier, 12", 10",8" and 6". Do I put dowels through the 12 and 10"cakes then again through the 8 and 6? Or do I put them through the whole stacked cake? How many would I use?
Also, can you use the dowels you would buy in a hardware store that come in long lengths and you cut? What size diameter?
I know this is a lot of questions so whatever info you can provide I would really appreciate.

http://www.wilton.com/cakes/tiered-cakes/stacked-tiered-cake-construction.cfm

You only need one center dowel, if transporting.

But you are using dowels under each tier right??

Do I need to put dowels in each tier so the cake won't cave in middle?

Oh boy, I had a feeling that's what you meant.

You need to have dowels holding up every one of those layers. Nevermind the center one for now, cause that does nothing to keep that cake from caving in on itself. This is for a wedding??

Every tier, I mean.

Yes this is for a wedding I am doing a practice cake in July the wedding is in Sept. I am a little nervous!
Can you tell me how many dowels you would use? And should they be a certain diameter?

Just google tiered cake construction, and you should find a lot of help. I'm sure a lot of the links will lead right back here, but that's a good way to get going.

Thank you so much for your info and help. I will check it out.

Since you have plenty of time, check out SPS. It is cheap, disposable, very stable and fool-proof.

rydilly...
I learned that we should use as many dowels as the diameter of the cake board above minus two. For example if the cake that needs support above is 10" round then we should place 8 dowels on the cake under it (10-2), if the top cake is 8" round then we need 6 dowels (8-2) on the cake bellow to support it. This rule is for wooden dowels, not plastic straws.
Have had great results following that formula. Hope it works for you too
Good luck!

That's why I attached the Wilton construction link.

poohsmomma, I don't want to appear to stupid but what is SPS?

Bakery Craft - Single Plate Separator System - SPS

It's individual cake plates - under each plate is 4 permanently attached round flanges that accepts a plastic hollow core dowel. You wind up with an even height cake sitting on 4" riser dowels. Those dowels hold the weight of the cake above the tier below it without putting any weight on the lower tier.

Thank You Lynne3 for the info on SPS. I couldn't figure out what it was!
I might try this.