its whne you have a chcolate covered cake, then you place a dolilie over top and sprinkle iciing sugar.. like a stencil. there's french word for it, but i can't find the spelling.

thanks for the help.

Hi. I don't know if this is the term you are looking for but a "gateau" is simply a dressed up cake. A cake decorated with chocolate curls would be a chocolate curl gateau. The cake you described would be a stenciled chocolate gateau.

I like to work with royal icing but I love the test of whipped cream.
I never try but Can I decorate the cake with whipped cream? Like shell border or drop flowers etc?
Thanks for the help.

Actually, the word, "gateau" is the French word for cake, dressed or naked, haha!
Hugs Squirrelly

Hi. "The Essential Guide to Cake Decorating" states "A gateau is simply a cake with its best dress on". "The Professional Baker's Manual" in its glossary defines gateau as "A large decorated cake that can be cut into individual portions." As to whether a "naked" cake is referred to as a gateau, I have no idea These two publications don't think so.

I think what we have here is an english use of a non-english word and, with that, a modified meaning has evolved. Gateau in French is cake, but an American cake decorator can consider gateau as a fancy decorated cake. It probably became that way because gateau sounds so much more suave and sophisticated. Our language is very guttural. Just look at that work...cake...single syllable, two harsh kuh sounds and a long-A. Barbaric. However, gateau just flows nicely. It makes me see pretty, happy things. It's a much fancier word and probably why we applied it to dressed-up cakes.

i'm looking for the fench word for the stencling of the cake.
something like champ blanc, but i can't find any desgin on the internet, nothing comes up.

Would the term "cake stenciling" be appropriate here? I have no clue as to what it's really called.

rrbarker; that's great!

Hehe, I was just goofing around.

How about this: le gateu stencil du sucre?

Boyd you crack me up! I always thought gateau was the French word for cake. Just 'cake' nonspecifically. The area where I live (only a few hours from the Maine/Quebec border) has a lot of French Canadians around so the language is fairly common. Maybe in Parisian French it has more specific meaning? I will ask my husband his opinion tonight. He is French Canadian and is fluent in both English and French (no accent either, I'm so jealous!)

Heehee, my hubby and children are fluently bilingual also. I am not totally fluent but can get by. Actually my hubby has been involved in French Language services for much of his career. He retired from the Ontario government 8 years ago and has since been Directeur General of an organization that includes all of the French speaking municipalities of the province of Ontario. My oldest daughter recruits for her Alma Mater, the local bilingual university. Heehee, so your hubby could get along with mine!
Perhaps in the U.S. culinary and patisserie books, this term is used for something different, but a gateau is a cake in French, Parisian or Canadian, doesn't matter. The language is exactly the same, just some expressions are more common in one place or the other. The plural term is "gateaux". Here are two definitions from other culinary sites for gateau.
GATEAU: This is the french word for cake. It is traditionally a multi-layered cake filled with cream fillings or buttercreams, rectangular or round and more decorative than the American style layer cake.

www.dufflet.com/html/freshCollection/glossary.asp


Gateau (French) Cake
www.altgourmet.com/movabletype/terms/archives/2005/04/f.html

Still no luck on finding this term for cake stencilling with powdered sugar.
"Champ" is the noun for field. Is it possible the term is something like, "champ de blanc" which translates to field of white? Or could the term be, "champ du blanc"? Or is it possible that the word is "champetre" which is the adjective for rural, as this was kind of a country way of decorating back many years?
Other variations of "blanc", the feminine, "blanche", "blanchir" , to whitewash or to refine when used in connection with sugar.
Hugs Squirrelly