Cake Decoration Glossary Part I

Each tier of the cake sits directly on top of the one below with no pillars in between. The American stack is a great presentation for birthday cakes in lieu of the basic sheet cake. As a decorator, I really enjoy the 3-tier stacked cakes because they are traditional and elegant.

A piping technique that looks like the interwoven reeds of a wicker basket, this is best achieved by using butter cream and royal icing. This article at Pastrywiz.com: "Decorate Your Wedding Cake", has a great visual on how to achieve your basket weave design. Basket weave is a very traditional design which works great for country weddings or anniversary parties. The basket weave looks great when real or gum paste flowers are added. See "How To Make Cherry Blossoms" at Sugar Teacher's Blog.

Buttercreme is used to fill and ice cakes. It is a mixture of butter and icing sugar. The "go-to" site for Buttercreme is What's Cooking America's "Buttercream 101" where you will find different recipes for buttercreme, each one working the best for either decorating or using as fondant. Storing and the best days to use buttercreme is discussed. It is important to realize the difference in taste between "real butter" buttercreme and "shortening" buttercreme. I recommend tasting both and deciding on a favorite to use as your signature icing.

A multilevel, multiarmed cake stand which is used to display the cakes individually. Most often, cake towers are used for wedding cakes, anniversary parties or quinceneras. You can find many different styles of cake stands/towers at Cake Deco Co. and Sugar Craft.com.

 Is a mixture of boiled cream and coverture chocolate (white, milk or dark can be used). It is smoothed over the cake with a palette knife and can also be used as a filling.

 Also known as pillars, these are used in most traditional wedding cakes. They are tubes which are placed between each layer to achieve an open look between each tier and are a part of the overall design of the cake.

An intricate piping technique that gives a lovely lace like look. Check out Cake Central.com's "How To Do Cornelli" for a very good instructional article on how to pipe this lace..

A French dessert made from profiteroles filled with cream (what we know as Cream Puffs), covered in rich toffee or chocolate sauce and spun sugar.

 A round dessert made up of layers of meringue mixed with ground toasted nuts, and layers of whipped cream mixed with soft fruit.

Made from icing sugar or butter cream in a piping consistency to form dots, snail trail, shells, rope border, reverse shells, rosebuds and half rose, zigzags, ruffle, lily of the valley, basket weave. Creative Cake Decorating.com has some great detailed pictures of what your decorative piping should look like.

A piping technique which tiny raised dots are arranged in patterns on the cake to resemble dotted-Swiss fabric. See an excerpt of the book "Professional Cake Decorating" by Garrett, Needham and Mathews on how to do dotted swiss piping.

Check out an excerpt from "Cake Decorating For Dummies" by Joe LoCicero

Article: How To Make Buttercreme Roses (Includes tips for using icing bags)

Article: Decorate Your Cakes Like A Pro: Tools and Tips

Article: How To Make A Pull-Apart Cupcake Cake

Article: Basic Cake Decorating At Home: Basic Tolls and Price List

Article: Pastry Ingredients Defined (Alcoholic Ingredients)

Credit to Creative Commons for photographs, excerpts and template of work.