Ajanta Roy

Wedding cakes used to be just a prop at wedding receptions. You had to have one, but no one thought too much about it. Well, times have really changed now. Bakers now turn out wedding cakes that are true works of art- and they are just as delicious as they are beautiful. Fillings, flavors, and texture are just as important as the way a cake looks. And icing on the cake is again just as important as any filling, flavor or texture. Today, the possibilities of iced-cakes are endless. Here are some of your options:

Butter Cream is smooth and creamy butter-based icing that can be used to frost the entire cake, giving it an old-fashioned look, or just for piping borders and decorations. It has a silky texture and not-too-sweet taste that can be infused with flavors such as vanilla, chocolate, lemon, espresso, coconut, or hazelnut. A butter cream-iced cake tends to be a good value per slice, though it needs to be kept in a cool place.

Royal Icing is soft when it’s piped onto the cake, then it dries to hard finish. It’s traditionally used to create leaves, flowers, and other edible decorations- not to cover the entire cake.

Marzipan is sweet, smooth paste made of ground almonds, sugar, and egg whites. With its moist, chewy texture, it can be placed beneath other icings or used as the final icing itself. It can also be colored and molded into flowers or other ornamental shapes.

Rolled Fondant is an incredibly matte-smooth, elastic icing that gives your cake flawless, porcelain like finish that is a fine canvas for intricate decorations. It is rolled out like a pancake, draped over each layer on cake, and smoothed out before the edges are trimmed. Because fondant-iced cakes are labor-intensive, they tend to be more expensive.

Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache is a sinfully rich dark chocolate glaze poured over the entire cake.

Vanilla Pastry Cream is similar to what you’d find in the middle of a napoleon or éclair-perfect for filling between layers.

Modeling Chocolate has a tootsie roll-like consistency and is molded into ribbons, bows, flowers, and other decorations.

Run-In Sugar is royal icing thinned to a fluid consistency. It’s then used to fill in shapes outlined with regular royal icing.

The purpose of cake decoration is to entice people and at the same time suggest the flavor, texture and feel of the cake and event. They should not overwhelm the cake, but rather enhance it.