I just made petit fours for the first time today.

Wow, what a PITA.

But I think they are a really neat item, and would like to keep making them.
Things I would do differently next time:

1) Smaller cake pieces. I cut the pieces way to large this time, and not only will they be difficult to eat, but it made it harder to cover them.

2) Not fill them. The filling adds to the flavor, but makes the cakes uneven, and that much harder to get a smooth coating. Also, I used buttercream, and the hot fondant kept melting it.

3) Hold the pieces on a fork over the fondant and cover with a spoon. I actually switched to this halfway through the process. No matter what the joy of cooking says, pouring fondant over the pieces on a rack makes it nigh impossible to fully cover them, let alone get a smooth shell. And scraping the leftovers from the baking sheet beneath and then reheating was difficult, time consuming and really freaking annoying. And after switching, I really didn't have too much difficulty with crumbs.

4) Double coat. Im not sure how well this will work, but I want to try it next time. I only made a half batch of fondant, and didn't have enough to give them another coating, like the JOY suggest. The one coating isn't that bad looking, but I can see the cake in places, and I think a double coating would help get it smoother too.

5) Dry/cool on a rack. Yeah I was stupid on this part, and put them on a plate to cool and harden. Then I had a heck of a time getting them off the plate without cracking the fondant along the bottom. Next time I'll place them on a rack after I cover them so the excess can drip, and it will be easier to pick up and package once they are ready.

6) Get a better rack. Right now we have a circular rack with wide gaps between the wires. While this isn't normally a problem, the petit fours were small enough to be able to slip through the wires in places, or only sit on one wire, and then eventually tip over, wreaking havoc. As of now this is the only problem I'm having with this rack. So I may just suck it up and deal for now, since I'm spending enough on cake ingredients as it is, I don't need to spend any more money atm.

I run far and fast from those things - too much work!

I hear you! I attempted petit fours ONCE and that was enough for me!!! I don't mind mixing my own sugarpaste and fondant when I'm feeling ambitious, but petit fours - I'll buy them from a good bakery! So hats off to anyone who makes these with any modicum of success!!

I have learned all of that stuff too! I now use my candy dipping fork to hold them while I coat them (with a spoon too btw!) And I have never done fillings. I refuse to do that, there isn't enough money to be made from that aggravation! I dread knowing I have an order of these to do! (and I always spray the rack with PAM before setting them on there to dry - they come off it easier.)

No kidding! I have tried making them so many times, I am tired just thinking about it. I just gave up. If I ever want them again...the swiss colony has pretty cute ones!

Too much work for me...and I never get that perfection I am going after.

I have made many petit fours. That said, my petit fours are made from a mix; with the wilton 1/2 butter/crisco recipe; then their poured fondant recipe on top of the buttercream. So these are not the fancy petit fours with layers and special fillings. People around here love them though; and I can do them fairly quickly; to my eye they are nice and neat; and I have tried to explain what I do in another post. Would anyone be interested in my doing a tutorial? Not sure how to go about that, but I can try to find out.

I will take ANY tutorial I can get on those little buggers! I have tried and tried and can't seem to get it right. They look bumpy and I can't get the icing to coat evenly. I am to the point of giving up on them.

Here's my instructions on making petit fours that I have sent to many members on this site. Yes they are a pain, but I find that this method works the best for me. Hope it can help you guys:

When I decided to try to make petit fours I started looking all over the web for some instructions. I didn't find any that I completely liked so my method became kind of a hodge podge of a bunch of different methods.

I used a standard yellow cake recipe, but any fairly dense cake would probably work. I cooked it in a 12x17 jelly roll pan. Once the cake was cooled completely I leveled it and trimmed the edges off, so I would have nice sqaure pieces. Then I cut the cake in half and torted each half. I filled half with chocolate ganache and half with lemon curd. Once filled I spread a thin layer of buttercream on each cake and then put them in the freezer for a few hours.

Once frozen I cut them into one inch sqaures and placed them, back in the freezer. Then I took out about 12 at a time, placed them on a cooling rack, and covered them in quick pour fondant ( I used the recipe in the back of a wilton decoraters book), chcoalate for the ones filled with chocolate ganache. I tried a number of ways to do this however the only way that turned out to be succesful was to put the icing into a squirt bottle, like those used for ketchup or honey, and quickly cover each petit four starting at the top and working around the sides, making sure not to leave any holes. I could do about 12 at a time with the size bottle I was using. If you set the cooling rack over a large cookie sheet you can just scrape the extra icing drippings off the cookie sheet and back in the pan. After each bottle you will need to reheat the icing before refilling the bottle. The trick is to get the right consistency in your icing. If it is too thin it just runs off the cakes, too thick and you get too clumpy of a coat. I found that heating it just a little thinner than desired worked, because it would cool slightly by the time I got it transfered into the bottle.

The freezing of the cakes helps the icing set much faster than normal. Once the icing is completely set you can transfer them and decorate them any way you like. I used royal icing for my decorations.



Here's the quick pour fondant recipe:

6C confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2C water
2T white corn syrup
1 tsp. almond extract
coloring ( optional)

Combine water and corn syrup. Add to sugar in a saucepan and stir over low heat unitl well-mixed, thin enough to be poured, but thick enough so that it will not run off the cake. Stir in extract and coloring.

For chocolate poured fondant add 3 oz. melted chocolate before adding extract.

Mine look nice and you're right folks do love them. I just don't like making them. It is funny how they will oohhh and aahhh over such tiny little cakes!

I recomend trying the petite four kit that kathy scott sells. I will never do them the old way again.. woohoo!

Euphoriabakery, I was actually using your fondant recipe, I really liked it.

I couldn't use a squeeze bottle, as I didn't have one, and don't remember seeing one in our supermarket. (Although the hardware store may have one, I'll have to look next time.) But that would still leave the problem of having to scrape and re heat. So I may just stick with my fork and spoon over the pot for now.

Despite the initial difficulties, and annoyingness, I rather enjoyed the experience, and will definitely be making these again.

I AM GOING TO BUY THE KIT, I CAN'T WAIT DO THEM.

I GOT THE SWISS COLONY CATALOG YESTERDAY, THEY HAVE TRUFFLES IN THE SHAPE OF LADYBUGS, LADYBUGS ARE MY FAVORITE. I JUST HAD TO ORDER THEM TO SEE WHAT THEY WERE LIKE.

I am soooo gonna steal some of their ideas. Only instead of truffle ladybugs and carrots--cakeballs!!

bonnscakesAZ, where do you get the petite four kit that kathy scott sells? I am willing to try anything to get a batch of peite fours right!!! LOL
I have tried twice, the first time the icing was all on the pan and the second time it was so thick the cake fell apart before I got the icing smooth.