Cake Decorating Terminology

lindaf — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:17:56 +0000

Familiarize yourself with these common words used in cake decorating.

Attach – Securing decorations to your cake using icing as “glue”
Border – Decoration used around the top, side or base of a cake.
Buttercream - A smooth, creamy icing made from butter, that stays soft so it’s easy to cut through.
Filling - Frosting, preserves, pudding, fruit etc. that is spread between cake layers to hold them together.
Fondant – A sweet, elastic icing made of sugar, corn syrup, and gelatin that’s literally rolled out with a rolling pin, draped over a cake and dries with a porcelain-like finish.
Gum Paste – A sugar paste with a gum stiffening agent, used for handmade flowers and other three-dimensional decorations.
Leveling – Removing the “crown” of a cake to make cake layers even.
Outline - icing that follows contours of a shaped cake or to cover pattern design marks.
Marzipan - A paste made of ground almonds, sugar, and egg whites, used to mold edible flowers or fruit to decorate the cake. Marzipan can also be rolled in sheets, like fondant, and used as icing.
Piping – Squeezing icing out of a bag to form decoration.
Royal Icing - Usually made with egg whites and confectioner’s sugar and used to create flowers, latticework, and beading .
Score – Using a spatula or other utensil to make a mark in icing.

Simple Cake Decorating » marzipan