What kind do you use?

I use wood for 2 leyered cakes, for toller cakes I prefer plastic dowells or pillars wich I cut to size

Fairly new at this, but I've stacked a few cakes. So far I've used the wooden dowels purchased at Michaels in the cake deco area. They've worked great for me and have always seemed very stable, but I've not had to transport very far. I've seen someone use cardbaord dowels, but I haven't located them yet.

I use wooden dowels too from Wilton and never had a problem, even when transporting

I use wooden dowels from Wilton for 2 and 3 tiers. I assemble anything taller than 3 tiers on-site.

Bubble tea staws!! Sooo much easier to cut and I personally think they're much more stable than dowels. I then put a large wooden dowel down the center to insure nothing moves.

I like to use cake jacks (the plastic adjustable dowel rods). If it's a tiered cake I use a combination of cake jacks to support the tiers and add a wooden dowel rod down the center.

What size wooden dowels do you people use? 1/4" or 1/2"?

I bought the 1/4" but they are smaller than the bubble tea straws that I use. I can't get the straws anymore at my Walmart

What are bubble tea straws?

the ones I used are bigger than the average straw and mine had little spoons on the ends that I cut off. I could get mine at Walmart but now I can't....uuugh

I bought mine from this seller on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/172-Giant-Boba-milk-Tea-straws-smoothie-Thai-Bubble_W0QQitemZ320358525061QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item320358525061&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50


It was the best price I found, but that has been a while back.

I tried the wooden dowels at the beginning... boy was that a PITA!! I still have some in my closet if anyone wants them!! lol I love the bubble tea straws!! they work fantastic and are soooo very easy to use!!

Thanks everyone!

If you have an Asian market in your town you can buy them there. Otherwise google bubble tea straws and you will come up with several sites.

Anyone have a trick for cutting wooden dowels evenly?

For a small 2-tier I'll use bubble straws or even regular straws. Larger cakes I use a plate and hidden pillar method. It's very stable and I deliver up to 7 tiers already assembled and have never had a cake lean, slide, or collapse in the 13 years I've been doing cakes. I've delivered in 110+ temperatures and up into mountainous areas and have never had a problem with this method.

I used to use wooden dowels, but I didn't like the "wood" taste that the cake would sometimes absorb from the dowels. Also, they tend to "pinch" when cut, rather than getting a nice flat cut. Also, if they're not all cut exactly the same height, the weight of the cake sitting on the plate, on the tallest dowel has been known to make the cake plate crack.

I usually use bubble tea straws and wooden dowels. Maybe a mixture of both?

If you check Edna's tutorial, you can see that she uses these cardboard looking dowels.

Good luck =]

Okay, I don't have a large cake this weekend, just a 2 tier, double layer each to put together. But, I want to try the bubble straws. Don't know if I'll find them, but I will try. My question - will they actually be called "bubble straws"? Thanks!

I believe so. They are usually called bubble tea straws or boba straws. Just ask them for the thick straws and they will most likely know what you are talking about.

I have been using the straws from Burger King - similar to the bubble straws in size.

Here is a site that sells packs of 50 Jumbo Tea Straws for $1.50 per package.

/www.tentea.com/jumbubteastr