I am wanting to make a double barrel cake, with 2 additional tiers. I have an inspiration photo that has 1 inch styrofoam (covered in ribbon) inbetween each layer. I have several questions I'm hoping you can help with:

1- How do you transfer fondant on to the tall cake?.. it will need to be about 25 inches wide!.. and how do you smooth that out?

2- do dowels go through styrofoam? Do I need a centre dowel through the whole thing?.. Not sure how the whole styrofoam works! help!

There seems to be limited information on Double Barrel Cakes, so if you have any advice in general, would be great if you could please pass along!

You can cover the top of the top of the cake with a circle of fondant then cut a rectangle the height and diameter of the cake, roll it up loosely and then unroll it around the side of the cake. It goes on fairly smoothly that way, and you don't have the problem of all that ruffling toward the bottom. If you don't want the seam around the top to show, you could cover it with a border or try to erase it with a little shortening on the tips of your fingers. As for your second question, dowels (especially a sharpened one like a center dowel) go through styrofoam like it was so much butter - in other words very easily. Since I've started using center dowels, I've become a big fan of them, so I would say definitely use one.