Know Your Wedding Cake Terminology
Your comprehensive guide to wedding cake terms
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.
Get inspired by browsing our wedding cake gallery.
