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:
- Make sure each trimmed petit four is nice and cold. I refrigerated overnight.
- 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.
- Don't bother covering the bottoms.
- 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.
