Since nothing says ‘I love you’ like gourmet confections and because I had recently added petits fours to my arsenal of baking knowledge, I decided that this year’s Valentine’s treat would be white chocolate raspberry petits fours. This endeavor took up the majority of my weekend between baking and freezing and assembling and freezing and dipping and decorating and well, you get the picture. Time consuming or not, I’d make these little cubes of love ten times over. Their gorgeous presentation and undeniable deliciousness is worth the effort.
Petits Fours require careful planning in order to maintain one’s sanity during their assembly. This is not a task that you want to undertake the day before your special event. What is great about this recipe is that each component can be prepared well in advance so your final dipping and decorating can be easily completed the day before or day of your special event.
What you’ll need:
- Chiffon Cake; baked in layers of about 1/4 inch thick for approximately 5 minutes {easy trick – line baking sheet with parchment paper sprayed with cooking oil, pour batter, top with second sheet of parchment paper sprayed with cooking oil – freeze until ready to use to make removing parchment a snap}
- Simple Syrup
- Buttercream {recipe for amazing milk custard buttercream to follow}
- High quality, seedless preserves/jam
- Marzipan; rolled thin so that you can read a newspaper through it
- Chocolate melts; mixed with enough high quality unflavored oil to reach desired dipping consistency
Petits Fours Assembly: Layering from the bottom up
- Cake brushed with simple syrup
- Thin layer of buttercream
- Cake brushed with simple syrup
- Thin layer of jam
- Thin layer of buttercream
- Cake brushed with simple syrup
- Thin layer of buttercream
- Marzipan
- Freeze overnight, leaving the unsightly edges in tact to preserve cake.
- Using a hot knife, trim edges and cut to desired shapes.
- Return to freezer until ready to dip.
- Dip in prepared chocolate melts and transfer to parchment paper; chocolate will set quickly thanks to the frozen cake.
- Trim excess chocolate ‘foot’ with sharp knife.
- Place in small baking cups to avoid fingerprints when picking up.
- Decorate with marzipan, chocolate gum paste or piped chocolate.
- Share with loved ones!
Milk Custard Buttercream RecipeCustard Ingredients:12 ounces + 4 ounces sugar4 cups whole milk2 ounces corn starchCustard Preparation: makes 5 cupsPut 12 ounces sugar in pan on stove with milk; stir well.Combine 4 ounces sugar in bowl with corn starch.Heat milk mixture on high until it comes to boil; stir occasionally.When milk mixture gets warm, add 3/4 cups to corn starch mixture; make a slurry.As milk comes to a boil, whisk in corn starch mixture.Whisk mixture over heat until it thickens.Pour onto sheet pan and store in refrigerator until cool.Buttercream Ingredients:12 ounces (3 sticks) butter1 1/4 cup custardOptional: 2 ounces of chocolate OR 1.5 ounces preserves OR 3 Tbsp vanillaButtercream Preparation:Soften butter and whip on high with whisk attachment.Once butter has significant volume, add custard slowly.
Add desired flavor.
