Dowel Stacked Tiers

• 1). Position the bottom tier of the cake on a baseboard. Pipe frosting onto the baseboard before positioning the cake to help it stick better.
  
  
• 2). Place a template that is the exact size of the second tier onto the bottom tier. Press it gently so that it leaves an imprint. This is where your second tier will be placed. Remove the template.
  
  
• 3). Place a dowel rod about 1.5 inches in from the imprint line. Mark the dowel rod with a knife at the point where it is even with the cake. Pull the rod out. Cut several dowel rods with garden shears the same size as the rod that was in the cake. You want enough dowel rods to be placed 1.5 inches in from the outline and about one inch from each other. The rods need to form an inner circle from the original outline.
  
  
• 4). Place the second tier on top of the first tier right at the outline you created on the first tier. Continue this method until you get to the top tier.
  
  
• 5). Sharpen a long wooden dowel--it needs to be as tall as the cake when it's been stacked. Push the dowel through the center of the top tier, all the way to the bottom of the cake. Cut the dowel so that it's flush with the top tier, in the same manner you cut the rest of the dowels.
  
  
• 6). Cover the dowel spot with extra fondant or frosting.
  
  

Pillars with Seperator Plates

• 1). Place each tier on its designated separator plate. The plate will be about two inches larger than the specific tier.
  
  
• 2). Dowel rod each tier as described in the first method.
  
  
• 3). Place the separator plates on each tier with the feet up. Take the pillars and place them onto the feet of the separator plate.
  
  
• 4). Set the next cake plate with cake onto the pillars. Continue this until you've assembled all your tiers.