Cake Petit Fours Recipes

PETITS FOURS

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 13x9-inch baking pan; set aside.
• Combine flour, baking powder and salt in bowl. Set aside.
• Beat sugar and butter in another bowl at medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally, until creamy. Add 1 egg white at a time, beating well after each addition. Add almond flavoring; mix well. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beating at low speed after each addition just until mixed.
• Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pan on cooling racks 10 minutes. Loosen edge of cake by running knife around inside edge. Carefully remove cake from pan; cool completely.
• Trim edges from cake; cut cake into 48 (1 1/2-inch square) pieces.
• Combine sugar, cream of tartar and water in 3-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, 12-14 minutes or until mixture comes to a full boil. Cover; boil 3 minutes. Uncover; continue cooking 15-20 minutes or until candy thermometer reaches 228°F to 234°F, or small amount of mixture dropped into ice water forms a 2-inch soft thread. Remove from heat; cool to 110°F (about 1 hour) or until bottom of pan is slightly warm to touch. (Do not stir.) Stir in powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon almond extract and food color, if desired.
• Place cooling rack over waxed paper. Place 1 cake piece on fork; drizzle icing over top and sides of cake, making sure each side is covered. Place onto rack; let stand until icing is set. (If icing becomes too thick, reheat over low heat 2-3 minutes or until thin consistency and easy to drizzle.)
• Garnish each petit four with candy flowers or frosting flowers, if desired.

PETITS FOURS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10x15 inch jellyroll pan.
• In a large bowl, beat the eggs and egg yolks using an electric mixer. Add sugar, and beat until thick and pale, about 10 minutes. If you have a stand mixer, use the whisk attachment. Sift the flour and baking powder into the egg mixture, and fold in by hand along with the milk. Stir just until the batter is mixed, then fold in the melted butter until smooth. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.
• Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. When finished, invert the cake pan onto a sheet of waxed paper, and cool completely. This will give you nice even petits fours.
• Cut the cooled cake into small squares, rectangles or triangles, and arrange the pieces in rows on a wire rack or glazing screen with plenty of space between rows. (See Cook's Notes for flavoring suggestions). Set the rack over a shallow pan or waxed paper to catch the drips.
• Spoon or pour warmed petit four icing over the small cakes. The drippings may be scraped off of the pan or paper, and reheated for use again. Allow the petits fours to set until completely dry. Lift the cakes from the rack with a metal spatula, and trim the bottom edges with a sharp knife. Set into small muffin papers for easy handling. Decorate as desired.

POUND CAKE PETIT FOURS

Steps:

• Line a large baking pan with parchment paper, then set a grid cooling rack inside.
• Cut the top and bottom crusts from the pound cake (to remove any browned edges) using a serrated knife or cake leveler. Cut the cake in half lengthwise into two 1/2-inch-thick slabs. Lay them on a work surface and stamp about ten 2-inch shapes from each slab with a cookie cutter. Arrange on the prepared rack.
• Remove the lids and foils from the tops of each frosting tub and microwave each in 30-second intervals until melted and pourable, about 1 minute total. Stir pink food coloring into one tub until a vibrant color is achieved; add green color to another tub and stir. (You'll leave one tub untinted.)
• Liberally pour the pink frosting over 10 pieces of cake until they are completely coated, turning the pan to see if all sides get coated well. Pour the green over 10 more pieces in the same manner. Drizzle the white frosting over the pink and green cakes using a spoon. Let stand for about 2 minutes, then top ten cakes with whole almonds and ten cakes with the cherries.
• Let stand until set, about 30 minutes, or transfer to the refrigerator to speed the setting, about 15 minutes. Place each petit four inside a cupcake paper and display on a serving tray.

PRETTY PETITS FOURS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream the butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. In a small bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form; gently fold into batter., Pour into a greased 9-in. square baking pan. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely., Cut a thin slice off each side of cake. Cut cake into 1-1/4-in. squares. Place 1/2 in. apart on a rack in a 15x10x1-in. pan., In a large bowl, combine glaze ingredients. Beat on low speed just until blended; beat on high until smooth. Apply glaze evenly over tops and sides of cake squares, allowing excess to drip off. Let dry. Repeat if necessary to thoroughly coat squares. Let dry completely., For frosting, in a small bowl, cream the butter, shortening and vanilla. Beat in confectioners' sugar and enough milk to achieve desired consistency. Place 1/2 cup each in two bowls; tint one pink and one green., Cut a small hole in the corner of a pastry or plastic bag; insert #104 tip. Fill with pink frosting; pipe a rosebud on each petit four. Insert #3 round tip into another pastry or plastic bag; fill with green frosting. Pipe a leaf under each rose.

PETIT FOURS

Steps:

• For the cake: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Liberally spray an 18-by13-inch sheet pan with nonstick cooking spray and line it with parchment paper. Stack the lined sheet pan inside a second sheet pan, to avoid extra browning when baking.
• In a mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk to combine. Set aside.
• In a food processor, pulse together the almond paste, granulated sugar and honey. Pulse until well combined. Open the food processor and scrape the sides and bottom with a metal spoon to check that the almond paste is completely incorporated. Add the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing to combine after each addition.
• Add the eggs one by one, pulsing until each is completely incorporated. After the last addition, scrape down the bowl and then pulse until the batter is completely smooth and slightly fluffy. Pulse in the flour mixture until blended.
• Spread the batter evenly in the prepared sheet pan. Bake until the cake is golden brown and springs back when gently poked, 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool completely.
• While the cakes are cooling, color the Royal Icing in the colors of your choosing and add each color to a pastry bag fitted with a #2 tip. Pipe tiny flowers on a piece of parchment by making small closed spirals in one color, then add leaves to either side in the other color. Set aside to set up and harden, about 1 hour.
• Remove the cake from the sheet pan and cut in half widthwise. Spread the jam on top of one half and top with the second half. Freeze for 10 minutes to set.
• Use a serrated knife to cut the cake into 1-inch squares. Place onto a parchment-covered sheet pan and freeze for at least 1 hour.
• For the coating icing: In the meantime, add the white chocolate chips to a heatproof bowl and set over a pot of simmering water (the bowl should sit above and not touch the water). Heat, stirring, until melted and smooth.
• Sift the confectioners' sugar into a separate large bowl. Stir in the hot water and corn syrup until smooth. Stir in the melted chocolate. If the icing is too thick (it should be pourable), add more hot water 1 teaspoon at a time. Use while warm; you can reheat it in the microwave if necessary as you are working.
• Put the little cakes on a wire rack fitted inside a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Coat the cakes with the icing using a spoon and small offset spatula, or add icing to a pastry bag, snip the corner and use to coat each cake. Top each with a hardened royal icing decoration. Allow the icing to set up before transferring to a serving platter.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fit with a paddle attachment, add the confectioners' sugar and meringue powder and beat to combine. Beat in 4 tablespoons of warm water to combine. Raise the paddle head to check the consistency of the icing; the icing should be thick and smooth but not dripping from the paddle. Add more water until the desired consistency is reached. (You can add slightly more water to achieve a flooding consistency icing to completely cover cookies. Use a stiffer consistency to pipe decorations and details.)

CAKE PETIT FOURS

Steps:

• Slice cake into 1/4-inch thick slices. Spread jam on the cake slices and then top with sliced strawberries. Cut cake slices into 1-inch circles and stars and set aside.
• Separate the frosting into 3 bowls and add food coloring to reach desired colors (1 to 2 drops of red to make pink, 1 to 2 drops of green to make seafoam and 1 to 2 drops of brown to make cream). Make a glaze by combining the sugar and milk in a medium bowl. Separate the glaze into 3 bowls and tint each to match the frosting colors.
• Place cake cut-outs on a wire rack. Fill 3 resealable plastic bags fitted with a star tip with each color of frosting and then pipe desired frosting over. Using a melon baler, add a scoop of ice cream and then sandwich the cut-outs. Drizzle glaze over cut-outs. Let glaze set. Pipe a star on the top of each petit four with the corresponding color of icing. Garnish with a small strawberry slice.