I am going to do a stacked cake this next week and need help desperatly!!!! The cake will be either 3 or 4 levels..haven't decided yet, but do you stack them and then travel with them stacked or not? I have @ an hour travel time.I really like the stacked look rather than the tiered colums. Another question is...on a stacked cake, you are supposed to make the cake cardboards slightly smaller than the cake itself, right? So, when you are putting one level on top of the other, how do you hold it and put it on without messing up the frosting? Or is it just inevitable the frosting will get a bit smudged and newed a repair? Sorry if this didn't make sense...I am soo tired!

I just did a 3 tier stacked cake yesterday, and the transportation was the most difficult for me and it was only across town. every turn and stop i was afraid my cake would tumble down. luckily it did make it safe, and i also put shelf grip mat on the bottom to prevent from moving. I put dowels in the bottom and middle tier, and one long one down the middle of all 3 cakes. next time i will prolly put a dowl through the second and bottom tier for extra security and use a plywood in the bottom when transporting.
the cake boards, i would make them very slightly bigger then the cake to give you finger room to place the tier on bottom cake and you can always cover w/frosting. I cut a board to the size of the cake, and yes it was kinda hard setting it on the bottom tier cause the frosting would smudge from fingers, but i tried fixing it w/frosting. you can always stack them when you get to your destination but it all depends on the circumstances i would think.

hope that helps.