How To Support A Tiered Cake

Tiered cakes are extremely popular, traditionally for weddings and more recently for any event where an impressive cake is deemed necessary! If you make cakes, either professionally or as a hobby, chances are you’ve been asked or decided to make a multi tiered cake. Whilst these look fantastic, ensuring the cake doesn’t collapse can be a challenge. Dowling a cake is an essential piece of making a tiered masterpiece, so here we’ll be telling you how to support a tiered cake with dowels.

Of course, the Sturdy Cake Stacker is a great way of ensuring your tiered cake stays the way it should, helping to avoid disasters when transporting your cake. However, you still need to make sure the cake is properly supported to avoid the upper layers crushing those below.

1. Ice each tier of the cake separately. Use icing to glue the cake onto a cake card or separator plate that is exactly the same size as the cake. You should use a cake board for the bottom tier, which is thicker and more sturdy. This should be the same diameter as the cake or at least an inch or two bigger, depending on the design. Ensure each tier is straight using a level from a DIY or cake shop. Dowels will be inserted into all the tiers except the top one. We prefer to use jumbo milkshake straws or poly dowels, as they do a great job of supporting the tiers.
2. You need to create a guide to help gage the best places to insert your dowels. Place a cake card the same size as the tier above the lowest tier and centre it on top. Press it gently to imprint the outline of the cake card on the icing or fondant. You’ll be placing the dowels into the cake within this boundary.
3. Push one of the dowels into cake, making sure it’s straight and goes all the way to the cake board. Use a knife to mark the exact height at the top of the cake and then remove the dowel.
4. Using a craft knife or scissors, cut the dowel to the marked length. Cut the other dowels for that tier to the same length of the one you inserted. These should be the same height as the tier, as shown by the red dowels in the image.
5. Push the dowels into cake tier, evenly spacing them about an inch in from the cake board outline created in step 2. Insert the dowels straight down until each one reaches the cake board.
6. Stack the second tier on top of the first, centering it exactly. We recommend  using a palette knife to move the tier without disrupting the icing below.
7. Repeat the process for each tier on the cake except the top one.
8. If you’re using a Sturdy Cake Stacker to fully support your tiered cake, the video below will show you how to dowel your cake whilst using the Sturdy Cake Stackers system. You can also see step by step photos showing how to use the Stacker here.