You are browsing through a baker’s portfolio as he describes each cake to you as you sit there thinking: ‘what is candy dough?’ and ‘can we eat Dragees?’ Well don’t panic, because we have provided you with a glossary of common terms used for wedding cakes to help wipe that confused look off your face.
Ganache: This is a combination of chocolate and cream and can be used either as a filling, or as icing for the cake.
Meringue: Egg whites and castor sugar are combined and then beaten together vigorously to incorporate air into the mixture. This is dried out in an oven to keep its shape.
Dragees: These are used to decorate all types of cake. They are small balls of sugar, coated with chocolate or silver and gold colours.
Almond Paste: This is commonly known as marzipan and is made from ground almonds and sugar. An optional ingredient is egg whites. It is mostly used to make cake decorations.
Butter Icing: This is a creamy type of icing made from sugar, milk and butter. Food colouring can be added to incorporate colour.
Candy Dough: This dough is commonly used to make cake decorations and is also called gum paste. It consists of a combination of water, sugar, cream of Tatar and tragacanth gum.
Food Colouring: This is a dye that is commonly used to change the colour of some foods. These can be eaten and are tasteless to a certain extent.
Profiteroles: These are small balls made of pastry, filled with cream and then covered with chocolate sauce.
Caster Sugar: This is a type of sugar commonly used when baking. It is smaller than regular sugar and larger than powdered sugar.
Basketweave: Icing is used to make a woven basket pattern on the top of the cake. It is used as part of the decoration on the cake.
Lattice Work: This is another form of decoration whereby icing is applied to the wedding cake in a criss-cross pattern.
Royal Icing: Made from sugar and egg white, this is a soft icing when fresh but turns hard when it begins to dry.
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