Petit Fours and Chocolate-covered Strawberries

I was asked to make fall-themed petit fours and chocolate-covered strawberries for a wedding shower. This was my first real attempt at making pretty petit fours, so I was both excited and nervous. Everything I'd read make them sound ridiculously difficult, so I kept my expectations low going into this and made plenty of extras in case I screwed up. In practice, I didn't think they were nearly as hard to make as everyone says, but they are extremely time-consuming.


The cakes were cream cheese pound cake with raspberry filling, and I used a poured fondant mix from my local cake supply and tinted it gold. I didn't bother torting the cake; I just did two larger layers and I think it turned out just fine that way. Maybe a bit less traditional, but you still got enough filling I think.



So, after my first round of petit fours, here are my tips:

1. Make sure each trimmed petit four is nice and cold. I refrigerated overnight.


2. Use a candy fork to stab the top of the petit four and hold it over the poured fondant bowl as you use a large ladle to cover each side and most of the top with fondant. Then, set the petit four on a tray covered with a cooling rack so the sides can drip. Use a spoon to cover the little holes left by the candy fork if needed.


3. Don't bother covering the bottoms.


4. If the glaze looks too thin, let it dry and do another coat. Worked fine.

I really liked how they turned out! I decorated the tops with a marbled fondant leaf and a monogram. The chocolate-covered strawberries were drizzled with orange and gold to match.