Ok, when is it that you ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY HAVE TO use wood dowels when stacking a cake?

i.e., I want to make a Vikings cake for my mother for her birthday. The bottom layer will be 10 inches the top layer 6 inches, both round. Do I need to use wood dowels for this?? Or are they used when doing say a 10 inch double and a 6 inch double??

Clarification would be nice. Her birthday is Monday so I will be baking away this weekend.

I think you will get a lot of different opinions on this one. Personally...whenever I put one cake on top of another..........I use dowels, period!! (unless it is just a tiny half ball cake or tiny half egg shaped cake) IMHO...even a small cake on top of another cake might be just enough to squish out the filling, if not worse, in the cake below and distort it in some way! I prefer not to take chances! I like to do things once and be done and not worry about "what if"?

I agree with Missy. I won't stack cakes without using dowels. It's so easy to do and and worth the peace of mind, even with smallish cakes.

If your cakes are one layer each it would be fine to stack them without dowels. If they are two layer tiers than you would need dowels.

I never used dowels to stack 1-2" cake on top of another 1-2" cake. I have made several cakes like you describe & never used dowels. If the size is bigger then a 10" then I would use a cake board between each cake. I don't even use cake boards when doing that size & under~

Cakes are heavier when filled in. You would not like it to be ruined, I would suggest using straws in the area that you'll be positioning the top tier.