I was gonna try making a tiered cake but I bought paper dowels or at least I thought it was dowels. It has like a texture of paper, i tried bending to see if it was sturdy and it took a lot of pressure to bend it. I think it was meant for cookies or cake pops. Can i use this as dowels or should i go out and buy another?

I have used the paper ones when in a bind, they held up okay. When I stack cakes I always use a long wooden dowel the height of the whole cake and sharpen one end with a pencil sharpener and tap down straight through the middle of the tiers to the bottom cake board for added support with whatever dowels I use.

We use the  Wilton plastic dowels at work for even the largest cakes. I use the wooden ones for my own cakes. I guess I'm a creature of habit because that is the way I was taught in school. I also invested in a good pair pruning shears to cut them with. They scare the heck out of me sometimes (watched to many Mob movies) but they do have a safety lock on them. I have a neat neat trick for holding the sand paper down as it has a habit of roiling up. I had a cheap 5x7 pic frame, so I put the sheet of sand paper in it to hold it study while I get rid of the rough edges on the wooden dowels,lol. I know, I'm just weird like that.

Some people swear by the big boba straws, have some but haven't tried them out yet. Its an old argument about which ones are the best to use. I'll let you decide.

http://cakecentral.com/t/764350/straw-dowels-do-they-have-to-be-bubble-tea

http://www.wilton.com/cakes/tiered-cakes/using-dowel-rods.cfm

http://*********.com/quick-guide/how-to-az/cakes-stack-and-support-layers

http://cakesdecor.com/topics/452