I have a question about a wedding cake I'm doing in a couple of months for my sister-in-law. She wants flowers inbetween the tiers (5 tiers - 14-12-10-8-6 round). The last wedding cake I did with flowers inbetween the tiers, I used wilton's hidden pillars and I was NOT happy with them - I felt like the cake was very unstable -  and that one was only 3 tiers. I've heard some people use styrofoam as a separator and they use wooden dowels through them to stabilize.

The main question I have is if I do that, what type of base would I have each tier on? Would a dowel go through a drum? For example, it'd be (from the bottom) 14" tier - 10" separator - 12" cake - when I drive the dowel through the 12" through the separator into the 14" and then the drum, what would the 12" be sitting on? I hope this makes sense! Would appreciate any feedback! Thank you! :)

When you put the support dowels into each of your tiers, you can cut them slightly higher than the cake, then you'll have room to place flower stems between tiers.  

I've always used plastic support dowels for each tier and then long wooden ones through multiple tiers into the drum. It seems like leaving the plastic ones longer would still leave the tiers above it insecure if I didn't use the wooden ones as well...?

For example, it'd be (from the bottom) 14" tier - 10" separator - 12" cake - when I drive the dowel through the 12" through the separator into the 14" and then the drum, what would the 12" be sitting on?

The 12" cake would have a 12" cake circle under it.  Then that goes on your 10" styrofoam spacer that has a 10" cake circle under it to prevent your support system from piercing into the styrofoam dummy.  Only real cake needs supports, dummies don't.  I wouldn't drive a center dowel through all... you can impale each dummy on a skewer or two as you stack to prevent shifting if you'd like.

Thank you...so a plain 12" cardboard circle would support a 12" cake?

Just to clarify - the only dummies involved would be the separators, the rest is real cake.