Can anyone help me with dowel rods. I am doing a 12 inch and a 8 inch heart cake on top of each other. How do I dowel rod the bottom cake. Do you take the rods out of the bottom can before you cut the cake. I have never done this before. I know it sounds dumb. But I have tried to save away from stacking cakes, because it seems a little to scary to do them. Thanks ahead of time.

I've just always used wooden dowels and tell the people that they are there so they are careful when cutting.

No worries hun, You put the dowels in the bottom cake to support the weight of the top cake. Slide an uncut dowel into the bottom cake to determine how long you want it, mark it pull it out and cut it and the rest of your dowels to the same length (important to do this). You might want to cut a dowel for every two inches of cake with no less than 4 dowels. So if the topper is a six inch cake you would use 4 dowels. If it's 10 use 5 12" 6 and so on.
Now kinda gently place your board that the top cake will sit on onto the center top of your bottom cake (to determine where you want to put your dowels) and then push your dowels in the bottom cake and then pull em back out a little so that 1/2 to 1 inch is showing (this helps to keep your fingers out of the frosting of the bottom cake)
Now set your frosted top cake on it's board (if it's not already on there) and gently center it over the dowels let the cake rest on the dowels carefully, and pull your hand out from under it and let gravity take over and the dowels will be just enough to keep it from crashing into the bottom. Finish decorating and away you go.
Now when serving your cake, take the top off first and serve it or set it aside. Next with some pliers dedicated to the kitchen of course, gently pull the dowels out of the bottom layer and set them aside and then serve your bottom layer or tier as usual. Or you can just leave em there and let peeps know that there are dowels in the cake and to watch for em.

I agree with chaptlps except I would put one dowel all the way through the top cake to the bottom. I find this helps with the top cake not sliding around if it get moved.

If you are doing more than 2 tiers you would repeat this process for each layer that you stack. and like Elserj said take a sharpened dowel and push it through all the layers (this is where the tool kit in the kitchen sure comes in handy) sometimes you have to tap it with a hammer to get it through the boards under each cake.

I would do the same, use a pencil sharpener and sharpen one end of the dowel into a point to make it easier to push through the cardboards the upper cakes are resting on. One tip I heard somewhere along the line came from Colette Peters who warns to not use Home Depot doweling because it splinters and doesn't hold the weight well, it can snap off inside the cake if you are delivering it assembled. She says she uses 100% Oak wood dowels.

You can use "cake jacks" as well, especially if it's for a family function and you know you'll get them back. They are plastic dowels with a screw top that allows you to adjust the dowel to the exact height you need. No splinters, no worries that all the dowels aren't exactly the same.

If its not a very heavy cake (no fondant!) or on the smallish side, I use bright, neon colored plastic straws. They are easy to snip off with kitchen scissors, and then I tape the little leftover pieces to the inside of my cake box lid, so the customer knows what to look for. Helps me to remind the first-time customers, too! When I open the box to show them the cake, I point out the little pieces and tell them approximately where they are. I use the bright green, pink, purple, etc, so they really stand out from the cake.

i would only put a dowel all the way thru the cake if it is 4 layers or higher the 12 and 8 will ride just fine i can count on one hand the number of times i have put a dowel all the way thru a cake for the most part i find it more trouble than what it is worth. when you take a hammer to it and start beating it down that is what scares me!!

Where do you all get your long center dowels from? I've heard some people mention Home Depot, but then the question of food safety came up.

I am a straw user too...especially for those smaller cakes. Much easier!

Question though -- if you don't put a center dowel through both tiers and then you transport the cake, what's keeping the top tier on the bottom solidly? Just the weight of the cake?

Sarah

You need pliers to pull out dowel rods?

not necessarily indy but it does keep your fingers out of the frosting (more professional looking that way).
I don't think anyone wants to see the server "diggin" for gold LOL

Where do you get "cake jacks" from?

I have the same fear about putting a dowel through the whole cake using a hammer...I am terrified of a disaster!

I actually poke a hole through the center of each cake board before I put my cakes on it. Then I just cross my fingers and pray that I can get the one long center dowel through all the stacked tiers without a problem - and I've never had a problem! Whew!