I have a question...

Has anyone ever used plastic drinking straws as their supports instead of wooden dowels?

My aunt bought me a cake decorating book and the lady who wrote the book swears by plastic drinking straws. She says they are 100% easier to cut as just as strong (if inserted directly up and down).

Just wondering if anyone has attenpted this before I do.

I have never used wooden dowels, and I have never had a problem.
For smaller two tiered cakes and stuff I find that regular drinking straws work just fine. My husband just runs into fast food places and swipes a bunch of them for me. lol Most of my cakes in my pics used drinking straws.

My newest find is Bubble Tea straws. They are much sturdier and thicker. I used these for the first time in the 5 Tier Pink and black cake in my pics. And I had no problem with them.

Hope this helps.

There have been tons of posts about this.

Some people swear by the straws and others would never touch them and only go with wood or hard plastic.

I guess it's just what you are comfortable with. I have used the straws with smaller, lighter stacked cakes but personally I would be afraid to trust them with a heavy stacked cake. The preferences seem to run across the board on this one

Good luck.

I've used them with no problems... I save the wooden ones for a center dowel on tall cakes.

duff uses the bigger bubble tea straws- which I have some of but I have never tried I am sooo nervous I will try it on a home cake 1st!!

i've only used straws too. bubble tea ones are definitely better but i've used the regular ones on smaller cakes. i have even used the straws on a 3 tier cake.

I've used both, and like using a combination. I'll use regular ol' drinking straws at the support dowels and then use wooden dowel in the center to 'drive it all home'.

Also, I really don't use Wilton's wooden dowels anymore. I found LONG (maybe like 2-3 ft) wooden sticks in the Walmart crafts department for about fifty cents a stick and they are MUCH sturdier than Wilton's wooden dowels. They also have different thicknesses. I love them!

I use a combination of straws and wooden dowels. For any 2 tier cakes, I just use straws. For anything more, I'll use straws for the supports but a wooden dowel through all tiers.

I use the Bubble Tea straws (buy them off eBay). Granted, I haven't had a ton of expereince with them, but they did support the two 4-tiered wedding cakes that I've done with no problem at all.

My first time with straws was this weekend and my cake bulged which has never happened with wooden dowels...but it might have been more the extremely bumpy road to the shower than the straws not holding.

I think if I ever use straws again I'd get the bubble tea straws. They seem to be much sturdier.

I use straws or lollipop sticks. Dowells are very hard to cut, in my opinin and even harder to even up. Toba Garrett also uses lollipop sticks.

I had never heard of using drinking straws until recently... and based on how I found out, I'd never try it even in small cakes! Yikes

Another decorator had made a beautiful 3 tier cake and it had a TON of detail work on it... hours of work fell apart right in front of the customer. She had used straws. No thank you! lol I will stick with dowels...at least I know they won't bend or fold under pressure.

Guys you seriously need to try SPS. It's incrediably easy and cheap. You build the cost into the price of the cake.

I was talking to a venue manager last weekend who was raving (not in a good way) about straws as support.

Any support that you cut has the potential to be not even and to not go in absolutely straight. If your support goes off absolute vertical in your cake, your support is gone. With SPS everything is snapped together, so that if you put it in straight (easy to do) there's no chance of your cake leaning/falling.

Hi Leah I have an SPS question....Do you always have to assemble on site. I can't imagine travelling without a dowel down the middle.............
I do use bubble straws and have been very pleased....sofar!!

Okay. I'm lost. What are bubble tea straws?

I am lost too, what is SPS and bubble tea straw? Do you insert a wooden skewer inside the straw or is the plastic straw used on its own.
Thanks.

I switched from wooden dowels to bubble tea straws which are a more sturdy straw (thicker palstic walls and the tube diameter is about 3-4 times that of a regular drinking straw (which I would never use)...Love the bubble tea straws as thay are way easier to cut and seem to be just as sturdy as wooden dowels...Sugarshack uses these and she is a master...You can find these on e-bay for great prices HTH

this lady used drinking straws, all by themselves! that would scare me! she swore by it though and said she' d never had any problems before. she had never heard of dowels!

Bubble straws are learge diameter straws used in specialty tea shops for tea that has tapioca in it?? Not sure what's in it, but I think that's it. You can get them on ebay and lots of other shops...just google
Single plate system, it's called, and it looks really good, but I don;t know enough about it..................

Woodthi, no, with SPS the idea is to preassemble and travel with the cake already put together. I truly believe that the center dowel is false security. If your cake starts going sideways, the dowel will stay firmly anchored into the bottom board - and tear right thru your cake.

Bubble straws are learge diameter straws used in specialty tea shops for tea that has tapioca in it?? Not sure what's in it, but I think that's it. You can get them on ebay and lots of other shops...just google
Single plate system, it's called, and it looks really good, but I don;t know enough about it..................

leah, I have always suspected that might be the case! Could you email me SPS instructions???

One reason I use the bubble teas is that they are so easy to cut to size. I have read your post before about making your cake exactly 4" tall to match the height of the plastic dowels in SPS, but I just know I could never do that! Are they easy to cut?

I have used straws, but only on small cakes. I would be terribly afraid to use it on larger ones.

I'm happy to pass on the instructions, but you must follow the instructions in my siggy.

duh

So what is SPS ???

Sure, SPS works fine on taller tiers. You just can't use the pre-cut legs. You have to cut them yourself. But remember the caterer or venue will likely be furnishing 5" or 6" dessert plates to serve the cake on, so your slices may not fit.

bump I'd like to know about SPS and how I use them on the taller tiers.
Thanks