Stacking a Tiered Cake

I've only made a couple of tiered cakes in my life.  Mostly, because it's pretty rare to need that much cake.  They also don't travel well, and it's just easier to make one large cake than several smaller ones.

One of the cakes at the wedding will be tiered, so I needed to practice.  The other times I've done it, I've cut crafting dowels to the correct height and pushed them through.  It's not easy and involves a saw or very sharp blade.  Then there's the chance of splinters working their way into the cake.

Man About Cake has a solution.  He stacks his using boba straws.  For those who don't know, boba drinks are a trendy Asian tea or milkshake with tapioca balls suspended in them.  The straws are barely wider than the average boba ball, and thick enough to survive the extra suction by the drinker.  Joshua sinks them in his cakes and snips them off at the right height with sharp scissors.  Add another dollop of frosting for super stickiness, and you now have a stable and hopefully level platform on which to rest the next cake on its cardboard circle.  Fast and easy.

Finding the straws was a little harder.  Wal-Mart carries them, but there isn't one near me.  The ones online were in giant packs for restaurants.  I finally found them at Smart & Final in a pack of 50 for a reasonable price.

And before the haters start, yes I'm aware that straws are the new environmental evil.  I always assumed they were recycled when you put them in the blue bin.  I do remember a time when straws were made of paper.  They transitioned to plastic when I was little.  It wasn't the end of the world when the straws got soft, and we'll get used to it again.  Meanwhile, 50 is about as many boba straws as I'll need for a couple of decades.

What I did not do for this cake, and I'll have to remember this for the wedding, is finish off the bottom of the top tier.  You can see the cake circle.  I'll need to bring extra frosting if I stack them at the venue, to patch any gaps.  We're probably doing the rosettes, so there won't be a border at the bottom.  I also need to work on keeping the cake board clean.  This chocolate buttercream was obvious when I missed, but even lightly tinted frosting will leave marks.  I have six weeks to figure this out.