Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Need to stack a 3 tiered 10″, 8″ and 6″ cakes all 4″ deep and all with a cakecard, with ButterCream, Jam and Sugarpaste. Which dowels would you recommend?
Wooden Dowels.
Plastic Hollow Dowels.
Plastic Solid Rod Dowels.

Also after the cake is dowelled and before placing the next tiered cake would you use what is best to use on top of the dowels?
Buttercream
Buttercream and Royal Icing
Sugarpaste rolled into a small pieces.

Thank you.

Hi Sky64

Which dowels to use is a personal preference. A lot of decorators use the hollow type but there are many who still use plastic dowels. I think with so much emphasis now on plastics, a lot of people are returning to using thick wooden dowels. Please see the following link for all the different types:

https://www.thecakedecoratingcompany.co.uk/tools-equipment-c28/dowels-c141

I used to use solid white plastic dowels and had no trouble with them. The last wedding cake I made was with using these. It was six tiers but assembled at the venue. That took away the stress of transporting a fully assembled cake and the fear of the structure collapsing. I have also used solid thick wooden dowels with no problems. I’ve never got around to the hollow plastic dowels but hear lots of decorators giving good reviews. I think it is up to yourself and how you feel about using plastics.

If you are transporting a fully stacked cake, it is safer to use Royal icing to stick the tiers down together. Royal icing makes for a very strong glue without the worry of melting, slipping, or sliding.

There is plenty more information on cake doweling in the free section of the Cakeflix cake library. Please see the basics tutorials and stacking double barrel cakes.

Hope this helps 🙂

If you are looking for a completely sturdy tiered structure, check out Paul’s French Lavender Wedding Cake tutorial due to be launched on the 2nd of September. He shows a brand new technique that will give you 100% confidence with the very tallest tiered cake. Kind regards, David 🙂