Recipe by Karen Parr-Moody
The first time I made petit fours, from scratch, I didn’t have a toddler and it took four hours to make a dozen. These delicious little morsels are so time-consuming to make, I’ve noticed that many professional bakers don’t even offer them (and they charge ridiculous prices when they do; $3 for a 2-inch confectionary cube, anyone?). But since I love making them and giving them as gifts, I had to figure out an easier way to do so. Here it is.
Done by the book, these tiny cakes that originated in France are baked from a batter made with almond paste. Ambitious bakers make three tiny layers of cake with homemade filling between those layers and a drizzled icing that thoroughly coats each cake which are then topped by dainty decorations.
If you are all about “life hacks,” I have developed a simpler version for two- or three-layer petit fours using mostly ready-made ingredients and a homemade icing. It cuts the time of the process in half.
INGREDIENTS FOR TWO- OR THREE-LAYER PETIT FOURS
One frozen 16-ounce Sara Lee pound cake, thawed
One jar store-bought lemon curd, any brand, 8 ounces
Ready-made cake decorations of your choice (tiny silver stars, sugar pearls, gumpaste flowers)
9 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
½ cup water
1/2 teaspoon almond extract or, if you prefer a citrus flavor, lemon extract
Gel food coloring, in desired colors
*Special tools: mini cake cutters in circle or square shapes (available in the baking department of Hobby Lobby)
Halve the pound cake horizontally into two equally sized layers. Use a large serrated knife to trim the golden crust of the cake’s top so that it is even. Then use a round or square cake cutter to cut the cake shapes out of the two layers. A round cutter will create 24 petit fours, a square cutter will create 20; you can do half and half for 22 round and square petit fours.
Using a serrated knife, take each petit four and evenly cut it into two or three layers (your preference). Then spread lemon curd between each layer of cake to create, leaving the top bare.
Icing the petit fours requires some concentration, as the icing must be kept warm in a double boiler the entire time. To create your double bowler, use a heatproof bowl set on top of a pot of simmering water (don’t let the water touch the bowl). Then blend all of the sugar, extracts and corn syrup with a half cup of water, stirring until smooth. This is your white icing base; to add color, put a tiny amount of gel food coloring on a toothpick and dip it into the icing, stirring and adding color until you reach your desired shade.
The trickiest part of making petit fours, by far, is pouring the icing over each cake. Assemble the cakes on a cookie cooling rack that is placed over a cookie pan. That way your icing will drip down from each petit four as it is poured, leaving a clean finish at the bottom.
Use a large spoon or ladle and pour about a quarter cup of icing over each petit four, allowing it to coat generously and then drip off. You may need to occasionally tilt the rack to make sure you get all corners of each petit four (squares are harder to cover than circles).
If you are using decorations, such as candy stars or pearls, apply them while the icing is still damp. The icing begins to dry within 10 to 15 seconds of being poured, so time is of the essence.
Petit fours after being cut out of the pound cake. They are ready to be sliced into layers and filled with lemon curd.
Lemon curd is a delicious filling that is easily spread between each layer of cake.
Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.