The Basics

• Basketweave: A piping technique that features interwoven vertical and horizontal lines (like a wicker basket).
  
• Buttercream: A light, creamy frosting made with softened butter, confectioners' sugar, egg yolks and milk or light cream; can be used as a filling and a frosting.It can be colored and/or flavored. Also used to create piping, swags, and other borders, as well as decorative rosettes. It can be used as filling, too. Buttercream is made from butter (as its name implies), so it may melt in extreme heat or humidity.
  
• Charlotte: Classic molded dessert filled with layers of fruit and custard or whipped cream and lined with ladyfingers, sponge cake, or buttered bread.
• Cornelli: An elaborate piping technique that yields a lace-like pattern.
  
• Croquembouche: French pastry tower made with stacked, custard-filled cream puffs and coated with caramel and sugar.
• Cupcake Cake:  An informal wedding cake alternative featuring individual-sized cupcakes arranged in tiers.
• Dotted Swiss: A piping technique that forms tiny dots in random patterns that resemble a fine dot swiss fabric.
• Dragees: Round, edible sugar balls coated with silver or gold and used for decorative purposes.
  
• Fondant:  Pliable mixture of sugar, water and cream used as cake icing or decoration. It's a smooth, firm base for gum paste flowers, decorative details, and architectural designs, and has a porcelain finish. A fondant cake should not be refrigerated.A sweet, rich chocolate, denser than mousse but less dense than fudge, which can be used as icing or filling. It is made of chocolate and heavy cream, and will soften in very humid weather.
  
• Ganache: Rich mixture of semisweet chocolate and whipping cream used as icing of filling.
• Genoise: Moist, light cake made with flour, sugar, eggs, butter, and vanilla and often used in petit fours and cake rolls.
• Gum Paste: This paste of sugar, cornstarch, and gelatin is used to mold realistic-looking fruits and flowers to garnish a cake. Gum paste decorations are edible and will last for years as keepsakes, but they don't taste as yummy as marzipan.
• Latticework: A piping detail that criss-crosses with an open pattern.
  
• Marzipan: Pliable mixture of almond paste, sugar, and usually unbeaten egg whites that is often molded into fruits,animals, and other forms.
• Mousse: Rich, airy filling made with fruit puree or chocolate and whipped cream or beaten egg whites.
• Pillars: Separators used in a tiered cake. They can be made of plastic or wood in several lengths to achieve the desired look.
• Piping: Decorative details created using a pastry bag and various metal tips. Piping details include leaves, borders, basket-weave patterns, and flowers.
• Pulled Sugar: A technique in which boiled sugar is manipulated and pulled to produce flowers and bows.
• Royal Icing: Made of egg whites and confectionary sugar, this icing starts life as a soft paste piped from a pastry bag to create latticework, beading, bows, and flowers. When dry, its texture is hard and brittle. Do not refrigerate.
• Torte: A dense cake that does not use leavening agents like baking powder or baking soda.
  
• Truffle: Bell-shaped confection made of melted chocolate and butter or cream, with added flavorings such as vanilla, nuts or liqueur and coatings like sugar, sprinkles or additional melted chocolate. 
• Whipped Cream: Heavy cream beaten to achieve a thick consistency. Whipped cream does not work well as an icing, and must be kept refrigerated -- it is unstable and not recommended for outdoor weddings.
  

So How Many Tiers Should You Have?

• Generally, three tiers will serve 50 to 100 guests; you'll likely need five layers for 200 guests or more.
• If the reception is in a room with grand, high ceilings, consider increasing the cake's stature with columns between the tiers. (A "stacked" cake is one with its layers stacked directly atop each other, with no separators.)
  

Cake Etiquette and Advice

• Ways to save:
• Order a small cake that matches your dreams, plus several sheet cakes of the same flavor. 
• Stay away from tiers, handmade sugar flowers, and special molded shapes.
• Garnish with seasonal flowers and fruit for an elegant (but less expensive) effect. 
• Don't order a different flavor and filling for each layer: Variety is expensive.
• Cake Topper Issues
• avoid plastic figurines 
• Heirloom pieces are a nice personal touch
• Other alternatives: a bouquet of sugar flowers, a cascade of icing ribbons, or a delicate gazebo fashioned from icing. 
• Fresh flowers work well too...
• Or you could top the cake with a picture of the two of you
• Since Gabe loves angels, find an angel figuirine that you can incorporate into your celebration.
• Fresh Blooms Warning: 
• Make sure the blooms HAVE NOT been sprayed with pesticides. Imagine that stomach ache. Everything on the cake should be edible.
• Your cake is beautiful, so make it's setting beautiful too:
• Drape the table with a nice fabric
• Set picture frames around it
• Set votice candles around it
• When to cut the cake:
• Traditionally, the ritual takes place near the end of the reception, after the bouquet and garter hoopla dies down. 
• Customarily, the groom puts his hand over the bride's, and they slice through the cake's bottom layer with a fancy knife. 
• Enlist your emcee or the band captain to make a friendly, casual announcement between songs at a designated time, or have a family member alert the masses.
  

Cakes I think you guys might like
Three-tiered cake covered in white fondant and red, pink, orange, and yellow gerbera daisies.








A five-tiered white cake covered in fondant with navy blue ribbons and fresh flowers.








 
Purple anemones and sweatpea on an octagonal buttercream cake.








White gardenias on tiered cake with ivory frosting and ivory buttercream dots.







The clean lines of this vanilla rolled fondant cake sprout delectable sugar tulip blooms.








CRISP HYDRANGEA
Three-tiered carrot cake with traditional cream cheese frosting, decorated with fresh hydrangea.







DRAGEE DRAMA
A four-tiered chocolate and vanilla cake decorated with fondant and dragees.







CANDLE CAKE
Four square tiers of vanilla cake topped with buttercream frosting, red spray roses, and small white votives in glass holders.