However, this time around I'm taking things slow and easy. I've got a really yummy butter cake recipe that I'm going to use (Yes, I know that sponge cake is preferred for these tiny treats, but sponge cake is a lot of work and butter cake is just a tad harder to mess up), and a new fondant recipe, simple syrup, and some filling, and some extra help. [And I know this has absolutely nothing to do with petit fours, except that I found this recipe for fondant while I was looking up petit four recipes... anyway, it looks really good, and since I'm not having a lot of luck with the MMF, I'd like to try it.]
Hopefully this time around, things will be different...
Later that same day...
So they really didn't turn out that bad, did they? After the cake cooled (it was a 9" x 13", using that butter cake recipe I mentioned earlier), I used some little cookie cutters that I've never used before. The funny thing is, they were a summer set, with sea shells and flamingos and all, and I'm using them in the middle of winter. =] I used the mini cutters: butterfly, heart, flower. The heart was the easiest to coat, by the way.
Then I put all the little cut shapes in a container and I froze them. (Don't worry, we ate all the cake scraps!) I mixed up some "quick pour fondant" on the stove, and proceeded to ice the little cakes.
I used a piece of wax paper under a cooling rack, and took a few cakes out of the freezer at a time. I slowly poured the fondant, with a spoon [I know! I forgot to use a squirt bottle], over each cake, to make sure that I covered the sides and all of that. It's definitely a tedious process and a labor of love, but perhaps it will get easier the more I practice. After all, this is only my second attempt.
I didn't fool with doing two layers, and putting a filling in between them, or covering them in simply syrup. I know that's a good idea, and I probably should have, but I got lazy, and I know my family will eat them anyway. :-) Speaking of lazy, by the time I got to the last few cakes, the fondant had really thickened (not sure why), and I was so tired of icing them, with the thin icing, so when it got to thick, I sorta just say "forget it" and blobbed the fondant all over. It didn't look so bad, but not as nice as the first ones that I made.
So, now you know that if you are making petit fours, and you mess up, there is hope for you yet! I've very pleased with this attempt, even if I didn't use filling, or syrup, or cute decorations (again, the lazy thing). So now I'm off to my grandparent's house for a family get-together and we're going to eat all of the goodies!
(That's one of the blobby ones)
3 comments:
All I can say now, is that after the party, only 2 petit fours were left. I think that's a success if there ever was one =]
Those petit fours look pretty darn good! Petit fours do take a lot of patience and practice but it does get lots easier each time imo. You may have just needed to add a bit more water to thin the poured fondant when it started thickening up. At least, that is what I have to do.
I want to try to make a batch of rolled fondant myself. MMF is okay; but after buying and working with Satin Ice I realize it just isn't as easy to work with for me. (But Satin Ice is expensive!) Just printed out a recipe from cake central that has gotten good reviews that I'm going to try. If it turns out, I'll let you know.
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