We are happy to have another cake decorating video tutorial on petit fours- this time, with a Christmas theme! I just love these tiny cakes- they can make any occasion feel a bit more special. In this video, I will demonstrate our favorite method of creating these petit fours as well as several fun designs for the holidays! I hope that you enjoy the tutorial!
Materials:
We baked our pound cake recipe in an 11x15 sheet cake pan. Our cake was about 1 ¼ inches in height.
11x15 Pound Cake {sheet cake}
Buttercream Frosting (We used our fluffy vanilla recipe. Choose a frosting that has butter for best results. I have only tried American buttercreams with this technique.)
Royal Icing for decorations
Piping Tips: I used small round tips for everything- Tip 3.
Colors: I used Americolor Super Black, Super Red, Mint Green, Chocolate Brown
Petit Four Icing (see recipe below)
Misc: Candy Thermometer (optional). Our glaze was approximately 115-120 degrees when we dipped them, waxed paper, angled spatula for frosting, long knife for slicing frozen petit fours. Skewer(s) for dipping.
Cooling rack (We rigged up our dipping station by suspending the rack (with tape) with 3 cake mix boxes on each side. Improvise with books or whatever you have on hand. An elevated rack is really helpful.
Notes
If you'd like to see our first video on Petit Fours, we cover a couple of other methods for dipping the cakes in glaze, as well as splitting the petit fours to add filling & tinting the glaze.
*There are 2 very important factors to ensure success with petit fours. First, you must be working with a dense cake. Pound cake works the best for us. If it isn't dense, the squares will not have a clean & uniform look. Also, the cake must be frozen when slicing and also when dipping. The glaze is warm and so the cake must be frozen in order to control crumbs and also to keep it from falling off of the stick!
*If the glaze seems too thick, add a bit more hot water.
After dipping, the petit fours set up fairly quickly...I would say about 10 minutes before I could safely move them to their liners.
The glaze preserves the freshness of the cake. You would be fine to leave these out at room temperature for a couple of days. If you are baking further in advance and want to refrigerate, do a test run with 1 petit four first. We had no trouble with refrigerating, but everyone's refrigerator is different. You'll want to make sure that your royal icing decorations will hold up when chilled before chilling your entire batch.
The process is simple, but petit fours are time consuming. Make sure to charge accordingly if doing these as a business order! xo
Classic Petit Four Glaze:
INGREDIENTS
9 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar (sift then measure) (945 g)
½ cup (164 g) light corn syrup
½ cup water
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract (optional)
Gel food coloring, in desired colo
DIRECTIONS
In a heatproof bowl set over (but not touching) simmering water, mix sugar, corn syrup, ½ cup water, and flavoring together until warm and smooth. I like a thin consistency and so approximately 115 degrees F was the temperature that worked well for us. Don’t worry if you do not have a candy thermometer..I just wanted to give you an idea. I prefer a nice, thin consistency.
Stir in enough food coloring until desired color is reached. Do not overheat.
Hi Carol, I'm sorry that we missed your comment. As we mentioned, we used an 11x15 pan. You can use a 2 inch depth or a jellyroll pan would work also. Our petit fours baked up to about 1 1/4 inch. I would keep an eye on it for doneness at about the 20 minute mark... it may take a little longer but it will bake more quickly than a usual sheet cake because it is thin.