Lately I’ve been facinated with little petit fours. I know they are labor-intensive, but who can resist something so small and cute?? So I decided to experiment a little bit. Of course I was lazy and didn’t make the cake from scratch, nor did I make the poured icing and fillings from scratch, but hey, this was just a tiny test run.
Cutting out the little cake layers:
Filling them with jam (they spread better if thinned out with a little water, and heated):
Glazing - I took ready-made icing, thinned it out with a little nonfat milk, warmed it up, and added a tiny bit of food coloring. I did this in original white, pink, and light green (shown below):
And then laying them out for the icing to dry and harden:
The insides of a little white cake:
Insides of the little pink and light green cakes:
I have to say, these little cakes were a tad too sweet. Part of it was that I was too lazy to thin out the jams, but mostly due to my choice of icing for the glaze. Next time, I will not be using Wilton’s ready-made icing, despite what their recipes say. Even though I thinned it out, it was still way too sweet for me. Despite what the Wilton website says, I would not microwave the icing just to thin it out - as it gets way too hot and the icing actually separates (yes, very nasty). Any sort of thinning out is safer on a double-broiler, with cream or milk. And if you do get lazy and need a little nudge with the icing, microwaving it no more than 10 seconds is enough. No more than that.
Next time, I’m going to make my own icing from scratch, and or make marshmallow fondant (which doesn’t give the “glazed” look, but I’ve heard that marshmallow fondant doesn’t taste awful like rolled fondant does). And maybe, just maybe, I might practice on my piping techniques. Maybe.
Having said that, other than the sickening sweetness factor, they did achieve their cuteness expectations, and were quite yummy!
10 Comments so far
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I’ve always love petit fours, but have been far to lazy to make them. I think I will try this idea for the next party we have.
By Michelle on 05/02/07 5:08 pm | Permalink
Petit fours are fun, but time intensive. I can see why they were too sweet.
By Lucinda on 05/02/07 6:48 pm | Permalink
even though they were too sweet, they still are super cute! ;)
By rhoda on 05/02/07 8:22 pm | Permalink
Once again, something cute and cool from you! This sounds real easy to make.
By Rain on 05/03/07 3:43 am | Permalink
they are SOOO cute! =)
By mary on 05/03/07 4:53 pm | Permalink
MMM that sounds good right about now. They’re cute!! *sigh* another thing to try. :)
By LaBean on 05/03/07 5:35 pm | Permalink
Despite the taste, I think they are very cute. A brilliant idea for when friends come round for tea.
By Estee on 05/03/07 10:38 pm | Permalink
the little cakes look lovely! you could try mixing the icing with lemon juice instead of water - it will cut down on the sweetness.
By sarah on 05/05/07 7:51 am | Permalink
Oh, man. You are making my stomach growl. I’m not usually a petit four fan, but these look so tender and moist. Glad to hear I’m not the only one who dislikes too-sweet icing, too. I like Sarah’s suggestion to make the icing a little tart; let us know if you try it!
FYI, I added a link to your blog in mine’s sidebar; hope you don’t mind. I’m a longtime reader but mostly just lurk via Bloglines.com. My knitblog has been neglected lately due to a busy year (I’m a Brownie troop leader and also changed jobs this past year) but I’m back on track, thank goodness. There’s something to be said for getting back to a comfortable routine.
I’ve also been discouraged about posting to my blog because so many of my projects go astray. Either the pattern has a glitch, I misread somehing, the lace pattern is too complicated for the interruption-prone times when I try to knit, or I don’t like the results (or the yarn) … or the baby grows up while I’m postponing work on her booties or blankie. Arrgh. I think I’m going to try some sock knitting for a while — at least the projects will be smaller!
Side note: Another friend’s blog pointed me to Sundara Yarn recently (http://sundarayarn.typepad.com/); have you tried their patterns out? Looks so interesting ….
As for my own knitblog, I did hit a brainstorm and decide that even when I don’t write about my own knitting, I can write about it in general. I read so many different blogs that I’m constantly finding some cool link to mention. So … we’ll see! In the meantime, I’ll keep on enjoying lurking here.
:o)
By Carolyn Bahm on 05/13/07 6:19 am | Permalink
looks yummy!
and lovely bags! How long does it take you to sew one?
Do you knit bags too?
By hui leng on 05/14/07 7:01 pm | Permalink
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