You might want to try your local asian stores for bubble/boba tea straws.

Great! There is a Japanese market up the street where I get my sushi from. I'll see if they have the straws. Thanks

Amazon has them as well 50 for 2.35
So much cheaper than dowls!

Amazon has them as well 50 for 2.35
So much cheaper than dowls!

i use a mixture.... those plastic hollows dowels on the bottom tier and then bubble tea straws and ordinary dowels on the top tiers. worked fine so far.

Steve-Angelcitycakes,

Can you tell us more about the PVC pipe, please? What diameter? What are you using as the board into which the flange is secured? How do you get the cakes on it - by standing over it and sliding the cakes down? Don't they get messed up?

I've seen Buddy on Cake Boss use PVC, but I didn't pay enough attention!


Thanks!

I have been using dowels all my cake life, but recently ordered bubble tea straws and foam core board to try Sharon Zambito's method. Haven't stacked a cake yet but I have one coming up.

I trust Leah_s on all things. If she says SPS is ultra-stable and secure, then it is. I have yet to try the system. My reluctance is based on that dang gap between the tiers. I just don't always want a border, and I never want a gap.

She recommends always baking to a specific height to make it easier to use SPS, but I also don't want to do that, as I am not good enough to insure the same height every time. However, I do have an Agbay and could force the hieght as long as I make the layers overly deep rather than too shallow. I also don't want to be stuck artistically at a certain height, but she says the SPS legs can be ordered longer and cut to size.

So I've rationalized away all my mental roadblocks except that gap... I think I will order some pieces and give it a try when I know I'll want a border.

Bubble tea straws all the way! So much more hygenic than wooden dowels, easier to see for removal, and they don't displace the cake like solid dowels, it goes up inside them. I use them every 2in, plus a central one in each tier. Love, love, love them! It maybe wonderful (I can't speak from experience!), but I don't think SPS is cheap and feel it's wasteful to just chuck it away each time. Straws, at pennies each, I don't worry about. I also want full artistic capability with my cakes, not to have to use a border or ribbon if I don't want to! JMO.

Ok, I ordered some bubble tea straws about a month ago, have not used them yet. I have a wedding cake in a couple weeks and I have to drive with it for about 45 minutes, some of the drive will be on a gravel road. I am a little reluctant to use the straws, because I have never used them and I don't want a disaster. I normally use wooden dowels and travel stacked. I really can't decide what to do, but I am so tired of cutting the wooden dowels and having to sand the edges!!!

When you use the straws, do most of you still run a long dowel through all the layers (like the pvc pipe mentioned?) How long are the bubble tea straws? Will they extend through more than one tier?

What does SPS mean?

grandmom, You really don't have to screw the flange to the cake board. Here how I did the last wedding cake I just made this weekend using a cake drum instead of a wooden board. I put the metal 3/4 inch flange on the table then I cut a hole in the cake drum large enough to fit over the lip of the flange and then put it on the flange. Then I put a washer with a 1 inch hole on top of the cake board. Then I insert insert a male adapter through the washer and cake board and screw it into the flange. Now I just insert the 3/4" PVC pipe into the male adapter. I know this is probably confusing. If I could attach a drawing I would. Some places online also sell stand-alone cake stands, but I wasn't able to find the sites right now.

do the bubble tea straws come in black or clear? The ones I found were a package containing several colors. I use dowels. When cutting the cake, does it look weird to have all of the colorful straws to remove?? Also do the straws throw of the cake servings? If you insert the straw and the cake goes inside of the straw, instead of around it like with a dowel, it seems like that waste cake

Hi I use regular straws from MD and Jack in the box they work great. never had a problem. just talk to the manager and they will sell you a box.
good luck

Thanks, Steve-Angelcitycakes

I understand what you're saying - makes good sense!

Thanks grandmom, It really does make good sense. Bubble Tea Straws or dowels to support each tier above and a PVC pipe going through each tier and braced to the bottom cake drum and you have got a cake that is secure as it can get. Taking the extra time to do this will hopefully prevent any disasters later. From personal experience, there is nothing worse than delivering a cake and watching it start to fall over right before your eyes and getting worse with each stop and go. This has only happened to me once, but once is enough to make sure it never happens again. I also deliver my stacked cakes in a corragated box that the cake drum or cake board fit exactly in.

Wow. Just followed the link above to a 14-page thread started by leah_s about the SPS stacking system. I am going to forget all about the dowel/straw discussion and order the SPS products. Really. Check out that thread and read the WHOLE thing from the beginning. I think you'll forget you ever heard of bubble tea straws.....

I have read it! I still use the bubble tea straws most of the time. Once in a while I will use the SPS - but not often.

Yes, I've read it too...I even have a set that my sister purchased for a large purse cake I was supposed to make her last year (leah helped with proper size, etc.)...we put off the purse till this birthday (Dec.) and went with something simpler, so I never did get to use it.

I only bake for fun...mostly family and friends...the straws will do just fine for them, LOL...I've never done more than 2 tiers anyway.