Dowels vs. Straws - Which is Better to Support a Cake?

There are two main ways that cake decorators use to support a lower tier of a cake to allow it to safely support the weight of an upper tier on it. The two ways that cake decorators normally use is either using cake dowels made of wood, or fat drinking straws made of plastic.

Now, I began by using dowels. That being said, I saw another cake decorator use straws before and I decided to try it for my birthday last year. That was the first and last time that I ever used them to support a lower tier. And I will tell you why I prefer dowels.

 Now, dowels are harder to cut. I usually use kitchen scissors, but I will admit that pruning shear would be a lot easier. Straws are super easy to cut. So, when it comes to cutting, straws win hands down.

 Here, you can see the tops of the dowels clearly from the cake.

Straws are visible, but are much harder to see and are easier to get exactly flush to the cake.

 Which one holds the top tier best? They both work almost equally. Straws, while not very strong in the middle, have a great tinsel strength from end to end. Dowels are slightly stronger, but in general straws are more than adequate for whatever you can throw at them made out of cake. Dowels, however, can also tilt to one side, while straws don't really do that. So, strength, it's a tie.

Now comes the reason I prefer dowels. Removal. Dowels are very easy to remove. They're solid and sturdy and you just pinch and pull them straight out.

 They don't even leave much of a hole. It's pretty minimal.

Straws? You can't grasp them, forgive the pun. They don't have enough substance to grab hold of and pull out of the cake.

 I tried both of the straws I placed in this cake, and I couldn't remove either of them.

 I eventually had to make a cut in the cake right next to the straw to remove it.

 So, in order to remove the straw, you end up with a cut like this.

 As opposed to the tiny holes left behind by the dowels, which are barely visible.

Because of the basic impossibility of gracefully removing the straws once they're in place, I do and will always prefer dowels. If that doesn't bother you, feel free to use straws. They do work just as well as far as holding up the cake goes. You decide which point is most important to you.

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