I've never attempted a tiered cake, but have the perfect excuse to try one 
. I need to make a b-day cake for my best friend's mom. We'll be joining them for dinner so I'll trasport the cake. I don't want to have to assemble it there. It will be just a 2-layer 8" round w/2-layer 6" round on top. I'd rather not put a long center dowel in it if I don't have do. Since it's not a large cake, do I need to stabilize it w/long dowel or will it be ok? Any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated 
. Since this is my first attempt I want to keep it simple.
I tranported the two bottom tiers of a wedding cake that had a 10" and 8" stacked on top of the metal serving platform. I secured my bottom cakeboard to the metal platform with a loop of masking tape to prevent shifting. I drove it on the floorboard of the backseat on a bumpy freeway for 1 hour and there was no shifting of layers at all. I only used four dowel rods and did not use a long dowel down the middle.
I think that your top tier is small enough that if you use 4 dowels to support it and "stick" it to the bottom layer with a little bit of buttercream icicng, you shouldn't really have a problem with it shifting.
Of course, If you want to be really safe, you can always use the rod but I think you would be okay without it.
Just my opintion.
Good luck!
You will still need to put dowels into the bottom layer, then a cardboard on top for the next layer to sit on. And it is always good practice to follow the rules of stacking cakes each and every time. Then there are no surprises!
I do every wedding cake with a center dowel through the whole cake. It keeps my sanity in check....
I would do it, especially if you are transporting it there like that. It really isnt a big deal to do it, so I say better safe than sorry.
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