These cake pillars are made of plastic. To use, remove bottom of one side of the pillar and place an dowel inside that is long enough to go right to the bottom of your cake that it should be resting on and to the top of the inside of the pillar, this way the weight of the next tier is resting on the cake board of the lower tier and the pillar is just a decorative way of hiding the cake dowel and provides an interesting finish to your cake