Well, friends, to be honest with you, I have to give you the bad with the good, successes and failures. I had some leftover chocolate cake in the freezer, and I’ve been wanting to try making petit fours. I’ve always loved the perfect look of these miniature cakes. Remember the little four-pack that was always part of Hickory Farms gifts boxes at Christmas? I have a new found respect for those folks at Hickory Farms.
While I will serve these tonight, I’ll stick to standard sized cakes in the future. The cake layer, which I split in half was from Marianna’s birthday cake. I took inspiration from this blog post, using the suggestions for the pink and chocolate layers on top of the cake. I did have to substitute cranberry juice for pomegranate juice. I haven’t found POM in Poland. I also haven’t found shortening here, so I had to look for another pourable fondant recipe. I used the one of the King Arthur Flour website.
My petit fours are a far cry from the pristine perfection of I remember from Hickory Farms. The fondant is not opaque enough to give a uniform appearance. The coating is not smooth enough. I read on one site that it’s better to use a small cookie cutter and make round petit fours. I would have to agree with that. It seemed like the corners kept popping through not matter how much I poured. I also think a white cake and fillings or topping similar in color would help with the appearance.
The taste is nice. A sweet, rich little bite. The tartness of the pink, cranberry layer helps to offset the intense sweetness. Taste should and does come first, but I would have liked an appearance that was a little less . . . rustic. French inspired pastries should not be rustic.
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