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petit fours

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painpaingoaway posted 7/17/2013 12:32 PM

Anyone have an easy petit four recipe?

Giving my DD30 a baby shower Saturday. The lil miss is almost here!

okaynow posted 7/19/2013 00:37 AM

If you go to the Food Network's website you will find a petit fours recipe under "Anne Thornton". It sounds good, but also sounds like a LOT of work.

If I were making them, and didn't want to spend quite that much time doing it, I would do it an easier way. How about making a dense cake, like a poundcake? You can make it from a mix. Bake the cake the day before you plan to use it. If you try to cut the cake into small shapes the same day you bake it, it will be too crumbly and difficult to work with.

So -- bake a poundcake in a 13x9x2 baking pan. Remove from pan. Let cool overnight.

If you wish, you can split the cake and spread raspberry jam between the layers, and you can roll out some marzipan into a thin sheet and put that between the layers also.

Trim the edges from the cake, then cut the cake into small diamond shapes, or any shape desired.

Place the cut out shapes on a rack over a cookie sheet. Take a couple of tubs of ready made frosting and GENTLY heat it for a few seconds at a time in the microwave. Stir every 5-10 seconds or so, until a pourable (but not too watery) consistency is achieved. Pour (or spoon) the melted icing over the petit fours. Depending on how thin the icing is, this may take more than one coat. Let set between coats.

After the icing has set, decorate the cakes with tiny flowers, drizzles of contrasting icing, or anything that you find pretty. If it's hot or humid, you may want to put the cakes in the refrigerator for a few minutes to harden.

Hope this helps. Have fun if you make them!

Nature_Girl posted 7/19/2013 00:50 AM

Isn't that what bakeries are for?

StrongerOne posted 7/19/2013 23:09 PM

Nature Girl, right on!

painPain, may I suggest teeny cupcakes? Buy some cute little decos -- candy flowers? Or little plastic babies? One deco on each cupcake.

If you like the idea of small decorative food, make tea sandwiches and go easy with the dessert -- teeny store bought cookies, pretty bowl with strawberries, bowl of sour cream, bowl of brown sugar, let folks dip. Makes less than stellar berries taste awesome.

ThoughtIKnewYa posted 7/19/2013 23:56 PM

Isn't that what bakeries are for?

That's what I was thinking!! I would probably do it once, though, just to have done it.

Sad in AZ posted 7/20/2013 00:04 AM

OMG; my sister gave me my baby shower and did the most amazing job of it. She is a Philadelphia Culinary Institute-trained chef but she does not work in the industry. She made a side dish of string beans tied with pimento bows It was my one and only brush with gourmet catering.

Have a wonderful time, and don't sweat the small stuff

karmahappens posted 7/20/2013 12:41 PM

I don't bake...but I wanted to wish you good luck with the shower!!

Babies are the best

lynnm1947 posted 7/21/2013 14:19 PM

t/j

...she made a side dish of string beans tied with pimento bows

I do this when I cook white fish (cod, sole, halibut) for a company dinner. It festives up the white. It's a bitch to do, though. You have to use bottled (canned) pimento cut in thin strips which are susceptible to breaking!

I like the melted frosting idea. You could also do this with melted chocolate if you mix the chocolate with a little oil. You'd have to move the cake pieces with a spatula before the chocolate hardened completely.

painpaingoaway posted 7/21/2013 19:38 PM

Well friends I found what I thought would be an easy recipe for petit fours, but alas, I never found the time to make them. I ended up making buttermilk pies instead, and they were awesome!

Anyway, here's some pics of the decor:

My beautiful daughter: