I posted a week or more ago about advice/pointers for doing petit fours...everyone was soooo helpful! I was confident to do a test run & they turned out great! Well...had an order for some tomorrow...due in the early afternoon. I baked the cake last night, trimmed, torted, filled, put on a thin layer of BC and put in the freezer. Took them out this afternoon and cut them all out, then made my poured fondant and went to covering the little cakes. I don't know what happened, but it was a MESS!! The texture of the poured fondant looked perfect in the pot...just like it did when I did my 'test' batch. But as I was pouring it on, it was just glopping up and wouldn't flow down the sides at all. I tried gently working it down the sides and that just created an even bigger mess...pulling crumbs and all. I re-tried it 3 times!! 3 different batches of poured fondant, it just kept doing the same thing....a big gloppy mess... And nothing I did made it any better, only worse. Not dipping them, not using a squirt bottle, nothing! I'm usually pretty good at fixing, or at least hiding my mistakes...I do good in pinches like that, for some reason...but NOT today!!!

Good thing the order was from my DH's aunt...and I had some leftover from my test run, plus I called a local 'gourmet' store just before closing this afternoon and ordered a small batch to pick up tomorrow. I could really just cry! My DH's aunt is more than understanding...even offered to just go buy some herself tomorrow, but I wouldn't let her do that. So I told her not to worry, I would have an order of petit fours on her doorstep by 2 pm tomorrow, no matter what. Even worse...it's COSTING me $25.00 to do this order! She paid me already for what she ordered from me...but that's pretty much null & void because I've used the ingredients and my time...plus I'm having to purchase petit fours to replace the disastrous ones! Oh well.... I just told DH's aunt to please don't breathe a word to anyone that the petit fours came from me!! Not even the nice ones from the gourmet shop! lol I don't want anyone ordering them from me for a very, very long time...lol.

I am so sorry...I have had horrible things like this happen a few times!

That's horrible!! I wonder what happened? I would like to try some one day but not until you find out what went wrong!! LOL

Lazy_Susan

JennT,

I feel so bad for you I once had three sheet cakes fall on me in one night...didn't get it right till the fourth one.

Don't give up, try it one more time

JennT, sorry about your little cakes. I made some before Christmas and didn't like the taste of poured fondant, so I melted candy melts and thinned it down a little and poured over mine and they were real good

Jenn,

Sorry about the mess....everyone of us can relate!!

My condolences!!!! How frustrating that must have been.

I am so sorry that happened to you!

I prefer to stay away from petite fours as that sounds like something that would happen to me! I usually opt for doing mini cupcakes instead.

Better luck next time!

So sorry to hear about your disaster - it happens to the best of us I'm afraid but don't let it get you down or keep you from trying again.

Gee, what a shame. I have never done them before, but could the cakes have been too frozen/cold for the fondant to pour over correctly? I can't imagine why they would not have taken like your test batch. Is there supposed to be some sort of "crumb" coat either with melted apricot jam or maybe even very thin buttercream on the petit fours before pouring? Thought I read that somewhere.

That's ok, I just made stabilized whipped cream (which I had done before but with a different recipe) using gelatin, for my husband's birthday party tonite.....the recipie used this time called for alot more gelatin and less water than I had done once before, and don't think it was right because I ended with with strings in my whipped cream! Have to pick them out as I ice so no one thinks there is hair in the icing! Sure, and my husband had bragged to my sisters how well I was doing in decorating class......maybe if I stick coconut to the icing.....nah! LOL!

Deb

Sorry you had to go thru all that. For many years now, I use melted chocolate wafers instead of icing. It coats really smooth & seals the cake well.

Thanks so much, everyone! I'm feeling better about it now, but I sure was disappointed & embarrased! I most likely did something very wrong or mis-measured an ingredient for the poured fondant or something !?! And I did have a thin coat of buttercream on the top of the cake but even though I thought it was pretty thin, maybe I had just a little too much on there. I also wondered if they were 'too frozen'...but everyone who gave me tips said to torte, fill, put top layer on and then apply the BC thinly...then put in freezer for a while, take out & cut into your shapes, then back in the freezer again before covering with the poured fondant. Supposedly it helps the fondant to set up better. I don't know...I'm thinking I will give it another try just to prove to myself that I can do them!! lol But I think I'll use chocolate or white chocolate ganache, or maybe even the melts...we'll see.

Thanks for sympathizing!! Ya'll are the sweetest!

So sorry! Did you try adding a little white chocoalte or regular chocoalte into the poued fondant? I found that adding melted chocolate helps the poured fondant to coat easier. Also, I let the fondant be a little thinner than the recipe says and use a squirt bottle. And I always have the petit fours just as you said, straight out of the freezer.

If all else fails you could always cover them in regular fondant, while very time consumming you wouldn't have to worry about the poured fondant mess!

EuphoriaBakery- I never thought about adding a little chocolate to the fondant mixture...I'll try that next time! And I did try with the squirt bottle...it would've worked, I think, if the fondant wasn't glopping up so badly. I would get the top covered and as it started to go over the edge of the cake it would just sort of stop and hang there and set up in just a few seconds, then it was too late to try and work it down the sides. I tried using the squirt bottle to just put the fondant on the sides, near the top edge, but there was a big hump thingy where what I'd put on top had started to flow but then set up...does that make sense?? lol

Would it matter that the fondant was warm (not hot) and the cakes were frozen? Could that be why it set up soooo quickly?

It sounds like you may need your fondant to be hotter. When I make them I put the fondant in the squirt bottle when it is hotter than most recipes call for. I find it easier to work with when it is a little bit thinner. When it gets too thick it clumps up just like you are describing. And don't be afraid to squirt a lot on the top and around the sides. You can always scrape up the drippings and reheat and reuse them.

Jenn So sorry you had trouble!! I made icing to pour over some before and even though it worked the way it was suppose to I didn't like it cause it's thin and shows thru a bit. I love the petite four molds from Kathy Scott though. Those are covered in chocolate.. I'd never go back to the old way myself.

Were the cakes in your test run frozen too? Whenever I've done a poured covering I always start with a room temperature cake. Maybe the heat from the fondant and the cold from the cake just added up wrong. So sorry! Better luck next time!

I hear ya. Petit fours are some of the most temperamental pain in the hiney things to make!!! I will shell out big bucks for these from a bakery any time rather than make them myself whenever we do a tea - and I would turn down any order for these!!!