Glossary

Bain-marie: also known as a water bath this is a technique used for cooking delicate food when a gentle and uniform heat is needed all around. Simply place a saucepan or a bowl above – but not touching – a larger saucepan of gently simmering water.

Baking paper: a heavy-duty grease- and moisture-resistant paper, widely used to line cake tins and cookie trays. It can also be used to make a paper piping (icing) bag.

Baking powder: a leavening agent containing bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) and cream of tartar that reacts when liquid is added to it.

Batter: this is the word used to refer to the uncooked mixture for cakes and cookies.

Bismarck nozzle: a type of nozzle specifically used to fill cupcakes (it is also called a piping tube nozzle).

Brown sugar: generally refers to fine, granulated sugar with a small amount of molasses. It is soft, sticky and tends to clump. Depending on the colour and flavour of the molasses used it is considered light or dark brown sugar.

Brush embroidery: a very popular decorating technique used to create a delicate lace effect. It refers to piped royal icing being brushed towards the centre of the design with a damp square-tipped paintbrush.

Buttermilk: the slightly sour liquid left after butter has been churned. Alternatively, you can sour the milk by adding some acid, such as lemon juice.

Chocolate modelling paste: also known as chocolate plastique. A versatile paste made with chocolate and glucose syrup. It is used to wrap cakes and make decorations such as flowers, ribbons and bows.

Cornelli lace: a popular decorating technique in which the lacy design depends on the continuous curving of icing strings that do not overlap or touch.

Crumb coat: this describes the small amount of buttercream that is spread out over a cake to prevent any cake crumbs from sticking to the final coating.

Edible dust colours: these are powdered colours that are generally used dry and dusted onto the surface of icing. They work very well with a stencil to create designs on top of iced cookies.

Flooding: when you fill the outlined area (see run out) with royal icing to create a smooth effect.

Ganache: a mixture that is made from chocolate and cream. It is used as a glaze, sauce or filling.

Glucose syrup: a clear, viscous, aqueous solution produced from the breakdown of starch. It is sold in jars or tubs in supermarkets. It can be used to soften texture, add volume, prevent crystallisation of sugar in processed foods (like jellies and jams) and enhance flavour.

Glycerine: a softening agent in the form of a clear and odourless syrup that has the property to attract moisture. It is used in cakes to help them stay moist.

Granulated sugar: this is the most common sweetener used in baking and is highly refined.

Icing (confectioners’) sugar: consists of sucrose crystals finely pulverised into powder and available in various degrees of fineness.

Kneading: this process mixes ingredients and adds strength to the final product.

Lining a cake tin: when the inside of the cake tin is covered with baking paper in order to prevent the mixture from sticking to it.

Mascarpone: a fresh, thick, creamy Italian curd-style cheese made from cream, coagulated by the addition of citric acid. It has a very smooth texture with a milky and slightly sweet flavour.

Pearl (coarse) sugar: this has larger crystals than regular granulated sugar and can be coloured. This sugar makes a useful garnish on cupcakes or other baked goods.

Piping gel: a sweet gel that can be used in many different ways in cake decorating, such as glazing sugarpaste (fondant). It can also be added to buttercream to give elasticity if piping writing with it.

Polenta: cornmeal or maize flour made by grinding corn into flour. It has a rich yellow colour and a slightly sweet flavour.

Powdered gelatine: a colourless, tasteless, odourless setting agent that has been dried and broken up into individual grains.

Raw (demerara) sugar: a light brown sugar with large golden crystals. It can be used as a decorative coarse sugar.

Royal icing: a sweet, fluid paste made from whisked egg whites, icing (confectioners’) sugar and lemon juice that sets solid.

Run out: making an outline shape of icing that will be flooded after. The key factor is to have a continuous border otherwise the flooding royal icing will flow out of it (see flooding).

Self-raising flour: plain (all-purpose) flour combined with a small amount of baking powder. You can make your own by adding 1 teaspoon of baking powder to every 110 g (3¾ oz/¾ cup) of plain flour.

Soft-ball stage: this describes a specific stage of heating sugar syrup to 118–120°C (244–248°F). Once it reaches this temperature, if you drop a bit of it into cold water to cool it down, it will form a soft ball. This method is used when making Italian meringue.

Soft peak: this is a term used to describe a consistency. For royal icing, it is when the icing is lifted from the bowl and the peak will not hold its shape. For whipped egg white, it refers to when peaks are formed – if the whisk is lifted the tip of the peaks will curl over.

Stiff peak: a term used to describe the consistency of royal icing or whipped egg white when it is stiff enough to hold a shape when lifted from the bowl.

Sugarpaste: a very sweet edible sugar dough used to cover cakes and make decorations. Also known as ready-to-roll fondant.

Sweeteners: can be divided into two main categories: dry crystalline sugars and syrups.

Torting: the technique used to divide a cake horizontally into more layers in order to add height as well as give a place to add fillings.

Vanilla bean: this is a sun-dried pod from a type of climbing orchid that has a soft, sweet flavour. It is long, black, thin and wrinkled and contains thousands of tiny black seeds, which can be extracted by opening the bean along its length and scraping out the inside using the tip of a small, sharp knife. If you cannot find a vanilla bean, substitute it with 1 teaspoon of natural vanilla extract.