На торте была белая глазурь и немного орехов.

There was white icing on the cake and a few nuts.

Breakdown of На торте была белая глазурь и немного орехов.

• белый: white
• торт: the cake
• быть: to be
• и: and

Questions & Answers about На торте была белая глазурь и немного орехов.

Why is it на торте and not just торт?

Because на means on, and after на when you are talking about location, Russian uses the prepositional case.

So:

• торт = cake
• на торте = on the cake

The ending changes from -т to -те because торт becomes prepositional singular.

If you were talking about something inside the cake, you would normally use в instead:

• в торте = in the cake

Why does белая end in -ая?

Because белая describes глазурь, and Russian adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here, глазурь is:

• feminine
• singular
• nominative

So the adjective must also be feminine singular nominative:

• белый = white (dictionary form, masculine)
• белая глазурь = white icing

Why is глазурь feminine even though it ends in -ь?