Cake glossary
22 words that turn up when a cake is quoted, defined plainly. The one worth reading before you order is wedding portion: it is a different size from a party portion, and mixing them up is how people end up with a cake two sizes too big.
What do the cake names mean?
Medovik — also honey cake
Medovik is a layered cake from Eastern Europe built from thin discs of honey dough, stacked with cream and left to stand until the layers soften.
The name is the Slavic word for honey with an ending on it. Ours starts at £100 for a six-inch. More.
Napoleon
Napoleon is a layered cake of very thin puff pastry sheets set with cream, the Eastern European relative of the French mille-feuille.
Unlike a mille-feuille, which is eaten crisp within the hour, a Napoleon is left to soften and cut like any other cake. More.
Spartak
Spartak is a medovik made with cocoa in the layers, so the honey dough bakes dark and the cake tastes of chocolate as well as honey.
Same construction, same price as the classic honey cake; the difference is entirely in the layers. More.
Bento cake
A bento cake is a small round cake for a few people, packed in a lidded box the way a Korean bento lunch is.
Ours are four inches across, serve about 4 and start at £70. They need 3–5 days rather than the usual 7–10. More.
Oreshki
Oreshki are shortcrust biscuits baked in a walnut-shaped mould and filled with boiled condensed milk, then joined in pairs.
Sold by the kilogram rather than by the cake — roughly 56 to 60 pieces.
How are cakes measured and portioned?
Party portion
A party portion is the generous slice people actually eat at a birthday — the size you would cut at home.
A six-inch cake gives 8–12 of them, an eight-inch 14–18. More.
Wedding portion
A wedding portion is the small finger slice served with coffee, about an inch square.
A finger cut gets more slices out of the same cake than a party cut, which is why two quotes for one size can be far apart. Sweet Panda quotes one range per size — 8–12 for a six-inch — cut as a party slice. More.
Tier
A tier is one complete cake in a stack: its own sponge, its own filling, its own coating.
A two-tier 6"+8" serves 22–30 and starts at £270. Tiers travel separately and are stacked at the venue.
Tall tier
A tall tier is a tier baked deeper than the standard height, so it carries more layers of filling and more portions at the same diameter.
Every single tier we quote is a tall tier; extra height beyond that is charged separately.
What are the finishes and decorations called?
Buttercream
Buttercream is butter whipped with sugar until light, used both to fill a cake and to coat it.
It is the default finish on our cakes and the one that takes piped writing best. It softens in a warm room, which is why a cake travels cold.
Fondant
Fondant is a rolled sugar paste laid over a cake in one sheet to give a smooth, matt surface.
It is what makes sharp edges, modelled figures and painted detail possible. Unlike buttercream it is affected by damp, which dulls the surface.
Ganache
Ganache is chocolate melted into cream, used as a filling when soft and as a firm coating when set.
It sets harder than buttercream, so it holds an edge better under fondant.
Crumb coat
A crumb coat is a thin first layer of buttercream that traps loose crumbs so the final coat goes on clean.
Invisible in the finished cake, but the reason a smooth cake looks smooth.
Crumb coating — also on a medovik
Crumb coating, on a layered cake, is the crushed offcuts of the baked layers pressed onto the sides and top.
It is why a medovik or Napoleon has a sandy-looking crust rather than a smooth one.
Edible image
An edible image is a design printed in food colouring onto a thin icing sheet and laid onto the cake.
How a logo or a photograph gets onto a cake. On cupcakes it is a printed topper, £1 each. More.
Sugar flowers
Sugar flowers are flowers made petal by petal from sugar paste and wired into sprays.
Quoted separately from the cake, because the work is counted in hours rather than in portions.
Drip
A drip is ganache or coloured chocolate poured over the top edge so it runs part-way down the sides.
A finish rather than a flavour — it works on buttercream, not on fondant.
What do the ordering terms mean?
Lead time
Lead time is the notice we need between your order being confirmed and the cake being collected or delivered.
Ours is 7–10 days for a custom cake and 3–5 for a bento. It is not how long the baking takes — it is how far ahead the diary fills. More.
Rush fee
A rush fee is the charge for fitting an order in sooner than the usual lead time.
Ours is 50% of the price, charged when the notice is under 7 days, and only if the diary has room. It is a share rather than a flat fee because what you are paying for is the whole cake brought forward.
Deposit
A deposit is the part of the price paid up front to hold your date in the diary.
Ours is 50%, with the balance due 3 hours before the time you collect — or in cash on collection — and 7 days before a wedding. It is non-refundable but can move to another date if you give 4 days' notice. More.
The 14 allergens
The 14 allergens are the ingredients UK law requires every food business to declare, from celery to tree nuts.
Five of them are in our recipes and our kitchen handles all fourteen, so nothing we bake can be sold as free from any of them. More.
Food Hygiene Rating
A Food Hygiene Rating is a score from 0 to 5 given by the local council after an inspection, published on a public register.
Ours is 5, from Bracknell Forest Council. The record is under the owner’s name rather than the trading name. More.
Where should I go next?
- What size cake feeds how many
- The signature menu, with what is in each cake
- Allergens, and our hygiene rating