Traditional petit fours are a layered cake/jam combination - usually three layers of cake spread with a thin, thin layer of jam. In the classic version, there’s a layer of marzipan put on the top, then the cake is cut into squares and coated with poured fondant. The fondant is a little translucent, so you can sometimes see the jam in between the layers, some people don’t care for this so they dip/coat twice. Typically it is a white or yellow cake base and raspberry jam - it would be unusual to do chocolate cake.
What I do is to make my usual layer cake, and torte it very thinly - about a quarter of an inch (I have an Agbay cake leveler just for this), then spread the jam,and assemble the block (usually I do an 11x15 size). I don’t usually use the marzipan, so I cut a board to fit the cake size, and wrap the whole thing in plastic. Then I weight the top to compress it. Then cut into squares and dip into coating chocolate (it covers better, but you have to strain the crumbs out of the chocolate periodically. This is a pretty messy job, because the chocolate hardens in the strainer. I really don’t like making these - the amount of time you spend on them for what you can charge for them doesn’t make it worth my while. There’s a company in CA called Dragonfly Cakes (I think) that is now selling them nationally - one of my distributors is selling this brand - so you might want to take a look there for some inspiration….
Yes, usually they tiny, decorated sweet nibbles, made of cake mixture and decorated to look as pretty as possible! They can also be savoury but I think most people think of them as being sweet Usually handed around at buffets.
Jeanne, it seems so complicated! I thought you can just make a square (or rectangular) cake, and say, torte it and fill it,a nd then cut into small squares, frost and decorate lol. Can’t you just cover them in fondant??
I was thinking of doing something like this for my niece’s wedding some time later this year; but after reading Jeanne’s post, am having second thoughts hahaha! It does sound more complicated than I can handle (and I will need about 350 of these babies!). I had thought of covering them individually with either poured or regular fondantn then topping each with a sugarpaste gerbera daisy. Would that work you think?
Jeanne, it seems so complicated! I thought you can just make a square (or rectangular) cake, and say, torte it and fill it,a nd then cut into small squares, frost and decorate lol. Can’t you just cover them in fondant??
Covering petite fours with rolled fondant would be next to impossible. Definitely go for poured fondant, ganache, or coating chocolate like Jeanne suggested.
I have this leftover fondant that I want to use and I have no idea what to use it on. I dont want to bake cookies and cover them (boring), but I don’t know what else to do with it. I don’t have enough to cover a cake, and i have 4 balls of different colors (pink, blue, green, yellow)...i THOUGHT that these things were covered in fondant, but I guess not. Any ideas what I can use this leftover fondant for??
Hmm..the poured fondant sounds more do-able. It’s always hot here and I think my niece wants an outdoor wedding so anything chocolate is out of the question as it would melt all over the place.
