Planning a wedding cake is one of the most exciting things on your wedding to-do checklist. It can be confusing when your baker starts using terminology that you are not familiar with. Let me help clear things up for you by going over common terminology in the cake world that will help you when choosing and planning your wedding cake.
Cake Tiers: Cake tiers are how many different sized cakes are stacked together to form a pyramid of cakes to comprise of a full cake. Tiers can also be stacked separately using cake separators or pillars to give more height.

Cake Layers: Cake layers are the construction of same cake size put together to form a layer. It varies from baker to baker how many layers of cake make a tier. At Design My Cake By Patty, each tier has three layers of cake with two layers of filling/buttercream.

Buttercream: Buttercream is one of the coverings that can be used on cakes. It is typically made with butter, sugar and flavorings, depending on the type of buttercream. Design My Cake By Patty uses Swiss meringue buttercream which is a very creamy, light and fluffy buttercream with a wonderful flavor. Swiss meringue buttercream gets its light and airy texture from mixing egg whites with granulated sugar, heating it up and whipping into a meringue before adding butter.
Fondant: Fondant is a sugar dough used for cake coverings and some cake decorations. There are many different brands out there with different consistencies and tastes. There are also several homemade recipes, some made out of marshmallows which gives it the sweetness and soft texture. At Design My Cake By Patty, we use a high end commercial fondant on our wedding cakes, Carma Massa Ticino. It has a beautifully soft texture and lovely vanilla flavor. The soft texture gives it an almost buttercream mouth feel. At times, depending on the cake, I may also use my homemade marshmallow fondant which has a lovely texture also. As a lover of fondant, you will find most of my wedding cakes are covered with this sugar medium. Fondant is so much more versatile in creating many different designed cakes. Certain designs such as bas relief is more difficult to create with a buttercream covered cake.
Naked Cake: Naked cakes and semi-naked cakes are often confused and thought to be the same. A naked cake has no buttercream on the outside of the cake, only in the middle as a filling or as a barrier to prevent filling from leaking out of the sides. At Design My Cake By Patty, we do not make naked cakes as they have a tendency to dry out quickly due to the fact there is no covering on the cake to hold the moisture in.
Semi-Naked Cake: A semi-naked cake has a crumb coat around the cake to protect it from drying out. A crumb coat is a very thin layer of buttercream or ganache around the cake to seal in moisture. You can see cake through the crumb coat but it won't dry out as quickly. This design is often used for rustic themes. We will make semi-naked cakes at request.
Ganache: Ganache is a very rich chocolate made by pouring hot heavy cream over chocolate chips, whipping it until smooth and glossy. Can be used as a cake filling or covering a cake. At Design My Cake By Patty, I make dark chocolate ganache and white chocolate ganache using high quality chocolate chips. If a cake is going to be covered in fondant, I will often smooth a thin layer of ganache on the cake to create a super smooth finish before placing the fondant on. This gives a stellar appearance to the fondant without any bumps or bulges. With some of my signature flavor profiles, ganache is used as a filling.
Piping: A decorative technique using a piping bag (pastry bag), piping tips for different designs with buttercream or royal icing. Commonly used for borders, letter writing, swirls, patterns and dots.
Dragees: Hard sugar balls coming in a variety of sizes and colors as a decoration on cakes. Often used in a diamond and dot pattern. I typically use dragees to represent edible pearls on cakes.
Floral Wire: A non-edible, typically cloth covered wire used to make sugar flowers, wafer paper flowers and decorations. It is used as a support for decorations.
Sugar Flowers: These are edible flowers made out of gumpaste, similar to fondant but much harder. Used instead of real flowers on a cake. Can be removed from the cake and stored, as a memento. Although edible, they are hard and are similar to a potato chip crunch. Caution is to be used if eating as they will almost always be supported with floral wire.
Wafer Paper: Wafer paper is an edible paper used in the cake decorating world for making flowers and other decorations. Another medium for making edible flowers as well as many other designs such as sails, feathers, etc. Wafer paper is made from potato starch.
Ruffles: A design typically made out of fondant to resemble actual fabric ruffles. Commonly used in designs recreating a wedding gown.
Double Barrel Cake: Essentially a two-tiered cake made out of the same sized cake to create one tall cake. There is a cake board between the two cakes to separate them even though it looks like one tall cake.
Dowels: Dowels are used for tiered, tall and sculpted cakes. They give the cake stability and support. Dowels can be wooden, plastic, columns, bubble tea straws etc. They will need to be pulled out of the cake before cutting. At Design My Cake By Patty, you will receive a diagram to show you the location of the supports.
Swiss Dots: A pattern created by piping on small, “pearl” dots. Designed to resemble the Swiss dot pattern commonly found on bridal gowns or veils.
Groom's Cake: A groom’s cake is actually a special gift that is provided as an homage to the groom, by the bride either at the rehearsal dinner, or with the actual wedding cake on the day of. Many are decorated to reflect the groom's hobbies, such as golfing, gaming, fishing, or hunting. Traditionally this was done to allow the wedding to include some influence of the groom, as the bride and her family generally handled most, if not all, of the wedding planning.
Hopefully this blog will help enlighten you to some confusing terminology. :)
Ready to schedule your cake tasting? Want to learn more about what we offer as part of our wedding cake package? See our Process Page here
Til next time!
Patty

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