Sweet Talk: Confectioners’ Terms We Need to Know

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What’s in those fancy sweet names? Probably everything there is to know. Here are the common confectioners’ terms used for desserts and pastries.
Let us get to know them:
Buttercream: a rich creamy mixture of butter, eggs, and sugar used both as filling and frosting.
Dacquoise: a meringue paste with fine-ground nuts.
Dragée: a silver or gold sugar ball used for decorating
Ganache: a smooth mixture of melted or finely chopped chocolate and heated cream.
Génoise: a light, airy sponge-type cake that is usually round and the basis for many layered cakes.
Pastilage (or gum paste): an edible dough-like paste that can be used for modeling ribbons, flowers, figure, and other decorations.
Piping:  a technique for forcing buttercream , icing, chocolate, etc., from a pastry bag to form specific shapes or decorative designs.
Poured fondant: a soft, pliable paste made from sugar syrup that is used to fill/ or ice chocolates and other confections such as petits fours.
Praline:  caramelized almonds and/or hazelnuts used as flavoring, filling, and decoration.
Pulled sugar:  a taffy-like sugar that is formed into various shapes— ribbons, fruits, leaves, flowers— to decorate cakes.

Rolled fondant:  A popular icing with a matte, porcelain-like finish that is rolled out like dough and draped over cakes.
Royal icing:  a rock-hard sugar used for trimmings and decorations
Spun sugar (also called angel’s hair):  pulled strands of caramelized sugar for decorative nests, bows, etc.