diff --git a/src/main/resources/templates/catering.html b/src/main/resources/templates/catering.html
index 79eb6e6..fd7077d 100644
--- a/src/main/resources/templates/catering.html
+++ b/src/main/resources/templates/catering.html
@@ -67,19 +67,24 @@
                              : (${#lists.size(table.tiers) == 2} ? 'sm:grid-cols-2 max-w-3xl mx-auto'
                              : 'sm:grid-cols-2 lg:grid-cols-3')">
             <article th:each="tier, t : ${table.tiers}"
-                     class="flex flex-col panel-lift p-6 md:p-8">
-              <p class="label text-bakery-600" th:text="${tier.label}">Small</p>
-              <p th:if="${tier.price}" class="price mt-2 text-bakery-900" th:text="${tier.price}">$24</p>
-              <!--/* No price means "ask us" — say so rather than leaving a hole in the card. */-->
-              <p th:unless="${tier.price}" class="price mt-2 text-2xl text-bakery-700">Ask us</p>
-              <!--/* "Small" doesn't tell anyone how many it feeds. A column whose heading is already a
-                     head count leaves this blank rather than saying it twice. */-->
-              <p th:if="${tier.serves}" class="mt-1 text-sm text-bakery-600" th:text="${tier.serves}">About 6–8 people</p>
+                     class="relative flex flex-col overflow-hidden panel-lift">
+              <!--/* The wordmark's branch, at watermark weight. */-->
+              <span class="panel-mark -top-3 -right-4 w-24 h-24 rotate-12" aria-hidden="true"></span>
 
-              <ul class="mt-6 space-y-3 text-bakery-800">
+              <div class="panel-head relative px-6 py-6 md:px-8">
+                <p class="label text-bakery-600" th:text="${tier.label}">Small</p>
+                <p th:if="${tier.price}" class="price mt-2 text-bakery-900" th:text="${tier.price}">$24</p>
+                <!--/* No price means "ask us" — say so rather than leaving a hole in the card. */-->
+                <p th:unless="${tier.price}" class="price mt-2 text-2xl text-bakery-700">Ask us</p>
+                <!--/* "Small" doesn't tell anyone how many it feeds. A column whose heading is already a
+                       head count leaves this blank rather than saying it twice. */-->
+                <p th:if="${tier.serves}" class="mt-1 text-sm text-bakery-600" th:text="${tier.serves}">About 6–8 people</p>
+              </div>
+
+              <ul class="px-6 py-6 md:px-8 space-y-3 text-bakery-800">
                 <li th:each="row : ${table.rows}" class="flex gap-3">
                   <!--/* A tick, not a bullet: this is a list of what you get, not prose. */-->
-                  <svg class="mt-1 h-4 w-4 shrink-0 text-bakery-400" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none"
+                  <svg class="mt-1 h-4 w-4 shrink-0 text-bakery-500" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none"
                        stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"
                        aria-hidden="true">
                     <path d="M20 6L9 17l-5-5" />
diff --git a/src/main/resources/templates/home.html b/src/main/resources/templates/home.html
index f11b191..4be2917 100644
--- a/src/main/resources/templates/home.html
+++ b/src/main/resources/templates/home.html
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@
             <img th:src="${photos.of('gallery/' + item + '.webp')}" th:alt="${item}" width="600" height="400" loading="lazy"
                  class="w-full h-56 object-cover transition-transform duration-500 group-hover:scale-105">
           </div>
-          <h3 class="h4 md:text-2xl text-bakery-800 py-6" th:text="${item}">Cinnamon Rolls</h3>
+          <h3 class="panel-head border-b-0 border-t h4 md:text-2xl text-bakery-800 py-6" th:text="${item}">Cinnamon Rolls</h3>
         </div>
       </div>
     </div>
diff --git a/src/main/resources/templates/products.html b/src/main/resources/templates/products.html
index 8580094..ba85208 100644
--- a/src/main/resources/templates/products.html
+++ b/src/main/resources/templates/products.html
@@ -35,8 +35,10 @@
         <div class="relative w-full overflow-hidden">
           <div th:replace="~{:: gallery(${product})}"></div>
         </div>
-        <div class="p-6 text-center">
-          <h3 class="h4 text-bakery-900 mb-2" th:text="${product.name}">Name</h3>
+        <!--/* The caption sits on the cream, so the photo reads as mounted on the card rather than as
+               the card itself. */-->
+        <div class="panel-head border-b-0 border-t px-6 py-5 text-center">
+          <h3 class="h4 text-bakery-900" th:text="${product.name}">Name</h3>
           <span class="label text-bakery-600" th:text="${product.category}">Category</span>
         </div>
       </div>
diff --git a/src/main/styles/base.css b/src/main/styles/base.css
index 701e6c7..8d38502 100644
--- a/src/main/styles/base.css
+++ b/src/main/styles/base.css
@@ -39,6 +39,15 @@ body {
   color: var(--color-bakery-900);
 }
 
+/* The mobile menu is a <details>; its default disclosure triangle would sit beside the hamburger. Lost
+   once already in a refactor, which is exactly the kind of thing nobody notices until a phone. */
+summary {
+  list-style: none;
+}
+summary::-webkit-details-marker {
+  display: none;
+}
+
 /*
  * FOCUS. One visible ring for everything you can reach with a keyboard, as an outline rather than a
  * shadow so it shows up on cream, on white and on the sage bands without needing three variants.
diff --git a/src/main/styles/components.css b/src/main/styles/components.css
index ad954b1..07cf441 100644
--- a/src/main/styles/components.css
+++ b/src/main/styles/components.css
@@ -1,75 +1,98 @@
 /*
  * The public site's own classes — the ones that would be unreadable as a string of utilities in every
- * template that needs them. The admin's controls are in admin.css.
+ * template that needs them. The admin's controls are in admin.css; the type ladder is in type.css.
+ *
+ * Almost everything here is @utility rather than a plain class in a layer, for two reasons Tailwind v4
+ * enforces: only a registered utility can be @applied by another rule (panel-mark builds on mark), and
+ * only a registered utility can take a variant (`hover:`, `md:`, `file:`).
  */
 
-/* In @layer components, matching the old site. That ordering matters: a utility like `px-4` — which
-   the markup applies alongside `container` on nearly every section — has to win over this, or every
-   gutter on the site silently widens. */
+/* The exception. In @layer components, matching the old site — and that ordering matters: a utility like
+   `px-4`, which the markup applies alongside `container` on nearly every section, has to win over this,
+   or every gutter on the site silently widens. */
 @layer components {
   .container {
     @apply max-w-7xl mx-auto px-4 sm:px-6 lg:px-8;
   }
+}
 
-  /*
-   * The two branch marks of the wordmark, as masks rather than inline SVG.
-   *
-   * They have to take their colour from the surrounding text — sage in the header, cream on the hero
-   * and in the footer — which an <img> cannot do. React solved that by inlining them through svgr,
-   * but these files are 31 KB each and the lockup appears up to three times on a page: inlining them
-   * in server-rendered HTML would add ~190 KB to every response. A mask over `currentColor` keeps the
-   * tinting, keeps the files cacheable, and costs two requests once.
-   */
-  .mark {
-    background-color: currentColor;
-    -webkit-mask-repeat: no-repeat;
-    mask-repeat: no-repeat;
-    -webkit-mask-position: center;
-    mask-position: center;
-    -webkit-mask-size: contain;
-    mask-size: contain;
-  }
-  .mark-r {
-    -webkit-mask-image: url('/images/logo_R.svg');
-    mask-image: url('/images/logo_R.svg');
-  }
-  .mark-l {
-    -webkit-mask-image: url('/images/logo_L.svg');
-    mask-image: url('/images/logo_L.svg');
-  }
+/*
+ * THE BRANCH MARKS of the wordmark, as masks rather than inline SVG.
+ *
+ * They have to take their colour from the surrounding text — sage in the header, cream on the hero and in
+ * the footer — which an <img> cannot do. React solved that by inlining them through svgr, but these files
+ * are 31 KB each and the lockup appears up to three times on a page: inlining them in server-rendered
+ * HTML would add ~190 KB to every response. A mask over `currentColor` keeps the tinting, keeps the files
+ * cacheable, and costs two requests once.
+ */
+@utility mark {
+  background-color: currentColor;
+  -webkit-mask-repeat: no-repeat;
+  mask-repeat: no-repeat;
+  -webkit-mask-position: center;
+  mask-position: center;
+  -webkit-mask-size: contain;
+  mask-size: contain;
+}
 
-  /*
-   * The photo strip on a product card scrolls, but a scrollbar across the bottom of a photo is not part
-   * of the design. Hiding it is safe here because the strip is not the only way through the photos: it
-   * snaps, it takes arrow keys, and the arrows and dots are on top of it.
-   */
-  .no-scrollbar {
-    scrollbar-width: none;
-  }
-  .no-scrollbar::-webkit-scrollbar {
+@utility mark-r {
+  -webkit-mask-image: url('/images/logo_R.svg');
+  mask-image: url('/images/logo_R.svg');
+}
+
+@utility mark-l {
+  -webkit-mask-image: url('/images/logo_L.svg');
+  mask-image: url('/images/logo_L.svg');
+}
+
+/*
+ * The photo strip on a product card scrolls, but a scrollbar across the bottom of a photo is not part of
+ * the design. Hiding it is safe here because the strip is not the only way through the photos: it snaps,
+ * it takes arrow keys, and the arrows and dots are on top of it.
+ */
+@utility no-scrollbar {
+  scrollbar-width: none;
+  &::-webkit-scrollbar {
     display: none;
   }
 }
 
-/* The mobile menu is a <details>; its default disclosure triangle would sit next to the hamburger. */
-summary {
-  list-style: none;
-}
-summary::-webkit-details-marker {
-  display: none;
-}
-
 /*
- * SURFACES. Every white box on the site was "bg-white rounded-3xl shadow-xs" written out again, which is
- * how two of them end up with different corners. `panel` is that box; `panel-lift` is one you can click
- * or hover, and it lifts.
+ * SURFACES.
+ *
+ * These were plain white boxes with a grey drop shadow — the default card of every web app, on a page
+ * that is otherwise cream, sage and a hand-drawn vine. Three things make them the shop's:
+ *
+ *   a warm hairline, so a card has an EDGE and reads as stock rather than as a floating panel;
+ *   a shadow tinted with the darkest sage instead of black (see theme.css);
+ *   a head that can be tinted cream, the way a printed menu separates the price from what you get.
+ *
+ * `panel-lift` is one you can click, and it rises rather than just darkening.
  */
 @utility panel {
-  @apply bg-white rounded-3xl shadow-xs;
+  @apply bg-white rounded-3xl border border-bakery-200/70;
+  box-shadow: var(--shadow-card);
 }
 
 @utility panel-lift {
-  @apply panel transition duration-300 hover:shadow-lg;
+  @apply panel transition duration-300;
+  &:hover {
+    box-shadow: var(--shadow-card-lift);
+    transform: translateY(-2px);
+  }
+}
+
+/* The cream band on a card: a size and its price, or a photo's caption. */
+@utility panel-head {
+  @apply bg-bakery-50/70 border-b border-bakery-200/70;
+}
+
+/*
+ * The branch, laid into a corner at the weight of a watermark. It is the one mark that is unmistakably
+ * this shop, and at this size and colour it is texture rather than decoration.
+ */
+@utility panel-mark {
+  @apply mark mark-l absolute pointer-events-none text-bakery-200/70;
 }
 
 /*
diff --git a/src/main/styles/theme.css b/src/main/styles/theme.css
index 0a4fb11..257db9d 100644
--- a/src/main/styles/theme.css
+++ b/src/main/styles/theme.css
@@ -38,6 +38,14 @@
   --color-bakery-800: #37412f;
   --color-bakery-900: #232b1e;
 
+  /*
+   * Shadows tinted with the darkest sage rather than black. A neutral grey shadow on a cream page reads
+   * as a UI panel floating over a screen; a warm one reads as card stock lying on a counter, which is
+   * what these are meant to be.
+   */
+  --shadow-card: 0 1px 2px rgba(35, 43, 30, 0.04), 0 10px 30px -18px rgba(35, 43, 30, 0.28);
+  --shadow-card-lift: 0 2px 6px rgba(35, 43, 30, 0.06), 0 20px 44px -22px rgba(35, 43, 30, 0.4);
+
   --font-sans: 'Raleway', ui-sans-serif, system-ui, sans-serif;
   --font-adbhashitha: 'AdBhashitha', ui-serif, Georgia, serif;
   --font-lejour: 'LeJour Script', ui-serif, Georgia, cursive;