Before your first meeting with the pastry chef who will be whipping up your wedding cake, learn some baking lingo.

Buttercream: A traditional icing made primarily of butter and confectioners’ sugar or sugar. It is rich, creamy and easily colored, and is used for fancy decorations such as swags, basketweaves and flowers.

Dragees: Round, edible sugar balls coated with silver or gold and used for decorative purposes.

Dummy layer: A faux cake layer usually made of Styrofoam but decorated like the rest of the cake.

Fondant: A smooth, malleable icing made of gelatin, confectioners’ sugar and water. It is rolled out, like dough. Rounded edges are often a sign of a fondant cake. It can also be used for detail work, such as flowers.

Ganache: A rich icing made of chocolate and cream, heated and stirred together. It is used also as a cake filling.

Gum paste: Made from gelatin, cornstarch and sugar, this sweet-tasting pâté is used to make edible decorations such as fruit or flowers. It can be colored or painted.

Marzipan: An almond-flavored paste often used to create details.

Pillars: Wood or plastic separators used in a tiered cake. They can be made of plastic or wood in several lengths.

Piping: Decorative details created using a pastry bag and various metal tips. Piping details include leaves, borders, basket-weave patterns, and flowers.

Torte:A dense cake that does not use leavening agents like baking powder or baking soda.

For more information on wedding cakes, visit weddings.about.com, www.theknot.com and www.weddinggazette.com. Helpful books include Sweet Celebrations by Sylvia Weinstock.

—FAYE B. ZUCKERMAN