I thought I read somewhere that you can use straws instead of wooden dowels for a wedding cake. How many of you have tried this? Do they hold up as well as the wooden dowels? I have a three tiered cake to do soon. Thought I might try it out. I will have a 16", 12" and an 8".(stacked,faux fondant) Any advice would be appreciated!

I used them last week for a cake that was 14",10" and an 6".
They worked fine.
Sherry

Personally, I've never tried them...to scared to try. I'm still nervous using wooden dowels, have a fear that they will snap and goodbye cakes

I used straws as dowels for my daughters wedding cake , it was three tiers. I had some 8" cookie sticks that I pushed down into the straws then inserted them into the cake.. They were easy to cut off to the right height just using a sharp knife and they help up well.. Happy baking
Liz

I tried them once, with massive failure. But I think that the ones I used weren't thick enough. They bent right away. So I think that I would do like Liz said and use the cookie sticks inside of them. That would likely be the safest bet if you wren't going to use dowels.

Thanks so much for the advice guys! You were very helpful!!!!

I use the straws with no problems. I do add more straws than I would wooden dowels, for extra support. lolly pop sticks work well to.
I like the straws because I don't put the cake together until I get on site. If a dowel is off a little it will cause the cake to look like it's leaning, and hard to fix. With a straw I can take the tier off the cake and cut the straw down or add another if needed a lot faster and easier.

This might sound dumb, but what are cookie sticks?

cookie sticks are like sucker sticks. They are often used in cookie boquets. You find them where the candy making supplies are.

Thanks abbey, are they the white sticks that you find @ Michael's that is used when you make hard handy and chocolate molds?

I use bubble tea straws.They are thicker than regular straws.Great support.Look here
http://www.bobateadirect.com/product.php?productid=418&cat=0

i've used plastic straws and have had success with them. i use the plain, straight, white ones, which are quite strong and sturdy.

Just the sound of it makes me nervous! Maybe I will try it out once I am a little bit more advanced. Until then, I will stick with the plastic tube style dowles that you can cut to the right size. It only takes four per tier, and was easy to do on the one and only tiered cake I have done so far, LOL! Sounds like a more cost effective option though.

I would 100% recommend straws, I use them for all my cakes. It has nothing to do with your level of experience on how well it will work. I read it in the cake bible when I first started doing cakes. I used it on my first wedding cake, and have never looked back! Extremely cost effective, you can buy 200 for $1.00. The only level I would not recommend them for is the bottom, load bearing level on any cake more than 3 tiers. 3 tiers is my limit for straws. It would probably still work, but i'm too chicken to try it!

Use at least 6 straws per layer and don't go over 3 tiers. You could use 8 or 10 on the bottom layer.

Make sure they are placed perfectly vertical in the cake and that when you cut the straw, the cut is level. (if the cut is uneven, it can cause stress points in the straw and cause it to buckle.)