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Baking, constructing, and decorating a cake, especially a layer cake, requires a keen understanding of both art and science. While decorating your cake so that it looks like it came out of a bakery is important, it’s all for nothing if your cake topples over or sinks in on itself before you can get around to serving it.
As you construct taller and heavier cakes, you’re going to need to start to play with structure and find ways to keep the cake from imploding. While large wooden dowels are a go-to tool for many bakers, they can be a bit of a pain to find and cut. A cheaper solution that will help give your cake a little more structure is to use straws. Straws, like those made for milkshakes, can fulfill the same purpose as a dowel. They may be cheaper to buy than wooden rods, too, and you can always repurpose them from the odds-and-ends drawer in your kitchen.
Using straws to stack your cakes
This cake decorating hack is relatively easy to implement. You’ll want to first make sure that your cakes are totally cool before you start stacking and pushing the straws into them, as a warm cake can cause the frosting to melt and make the whole thing even more unstable. Once the cake is cool, you can start construction. Add a dollop of icing to the bottom of the cake board to keep your cake from slicing around before adding your base layer. You’ll want to cut the straws so they are the same height as your cake. Heavier cakes and ones with many layers will generally require more support, so make sure you stock up on enough milkshake straws beforehand. Gently push one straw into the center of the cake, then line the outside with your straws, leaving enough room so that the straws aren’t visible on the outside of the cake. The straws should also sit equally spaced under the next tier, as you want them to distribute the weight of the top layers evenly.
You can always use a cake board to give you an idea of how big the next layer is and decide where to place those tiers. That way, you can be sure that the straws line up and that all of your tiers are well-supported. It’s also worth mentioning to all of your guests — before they dig in — that there are inedible straws peppered throughout the cake.
