I'm doing a wedding cake today...12" and 8" covered in fondant and I need to use straws. I'm thinking I should be ok, but I thought I would check with you guys.

I remember reading a post about this and people suggested it and said it worked great! I am going to try it on my next stacked cake. Seems like it would be easier. I also remember someone saying that you should use more straws than dowels, just for extra support. Let us know how it goes!

Here's the post I was talking about...

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-9515-straws.html+dowels

I was told by a new customer that she had a wedding cake done by someone else who had used straws and that the cake collapsed at the wedding reception. She was pretty mad about it. If I absolutely had to use them, I would use LOTS. Just my 2 cents worth

I remember my wilton instructor telling me it was O.K. to use straws if it was a 6" tier on top...anything higher may make the cake collpase. I personally would not take the chance, but I am always over cautious! I just hate the thought of doing all that work and have a chance of something happen to the finished product. I guess if I was out of dowels, and HAD to use straws, I'd ust twice the amount that I would for dowels..just to be safe. It's just my opinion...(for what THAT'S worth!...lol)

I use straws with no problem, but I use the heavy duty Rubbermaid ones or the Walmart version of the Rubbermaid Juicebox Straws, large and small, as they are alot stronger than regular straws and the Walmart ones are not very costly.

Personally, I wouldn't risk it. I'm on the over cautious side--better safe than sorry. I think I would rather inconvenience myself and make and extra trip to get the proper doweling than take a chance and having a wedding cake fall. A wedding is a huge event, no matter what the scale of the cake is. I wouldn't want anything to happen to the cake--especially if I could have prevented it.

I'm not a fan of using straws...why take the chance on your hard work.

If I had to use them I would strengthen them..either fill them with chocolate or candy melts(melted of course) and let harden...might add some strength to them that way.

Thanks for the responses...Are there any scientists or structural engineers on this board??? I would be curious what their opinions are... Aren't cylinders supposed to be the strongest shape... A straw is a long cylinder. I would love to do an experiment some day using straws.

cylinders are strongest for the amount of material used. If you took a straw and made it solid, it wouldn't be much thicker than a thread and obviously not as strong as a straw is. A solid dowel rod is much much much sturdier than a straw

While no personal experience, I've read too many posts about failing straws and ruined cakes.

If you are in a bind about distance to a cake store, home improvement stores (Home Depot, Lowes, etc) carry dowels in 3 foot lengths that you can cut to size. If you are worried about them not being as clean as a packaged cake dowel, put it inside a straw and put both in the cake so the wood won't touch the cake..