I placed my little cakes on my cooling rack and no matter what I did, I cannot completely cover all of the cake. With the cake white and the icing white, it's not that noticeable, but I want to have a all over smooth, covered petit four. What am I doing wrong?

Hi, I haven't made them myself, but thought this link would give you an answer.

http://cakesandcupboards.blogspot.com/2008/01/lisas-easy-petits-fours.html

HTH.

Rather than pouring the fondant from the pan, you may find it easier to pour from a large serving spoon. It's easier and you'll have more control with it.

My version:
Follow those directions thru step 6. If the cake is starting to thaw, pop it back into the freezer.
7. Set a cooling grid on two somethngs (glasses, cans, whatever) to elevate it.
8. Stick a skewer into the bottom of the petit four.
9. DIP the petit four into the icing.
10. Drop the petit four - still on the skewer - onto the cooling grid.
11. Pull skewer out from the underside.

Notes:

The grid must be elevated enough so that the skewer has room to drop thru.

A cooling grid works MUCH better than a cooling rack.

The pouring thing never worked for me, I think Leah has a better method. Now if I can just find a better icing recipe, maybe chocolate based, I might try them again.

At one time I had visions of selling petit fours, people call me for them regularly but when I tried they were such a pain so I have turned down the orders.

Good luck, I hope you find a method that works for you!

If you sell them remember two things.
1) a classic petit four is two bites and two bites only. And little dainty lady bites, not Jethro bites.
2) charge a butt load as they are a pain.

I do it Leah's way too. I make sure the PFs are frozen and the fondant is warm. They are ready to gently touch in about 10-15 minutes.

Good point Kory. The fondant should not go above 92 degrees F. (Use a thermometer. 92 doesn't feel particularly warm.)

THESE ARE A PAIN TO MAKE!! I do like the tip with the skewer though.. might get me to try them again!!!

Thanks for the great info!

I was thinking about dipping. And I used "Lisa's Easy Petit Four" instructions. They were wonderful! I highly recommend them to anyone. The whole freezing thing is the key. I froze my cake overnight. I will definately need to refreeze after cutting before I attempt the dip-er-oo method. Thanks for your suggestions!

Leahs...since you are dipping, should the icing be on the thinner side vs. thicker? Do you use a smaller pot so you can get some depth in your pan with your icing? The pan I made my icing in was a big sauce pan, so I only had about 2" of icing...not deep enough to dip in.

What's the difference between a cooling rack and a cooling grid? The one I have is all squares, so I assume that's the grid and the rack just go across then? Thanks

you got it

Yes, dd, use a sauce pan so that you have depth - not width. Or even a deep bowl set over simmering water.

I've never made these before but I'm glad to hear about the cooling grid method. I'm looking forward to trying that.

Next question: Are y'all making these from a cut up cake or has anyone used the mini petit fours pans with the 32 cavities? I'm wondering how those pans work.

You should use a dipping fork. Every time I make petit fours I always used a dipping fork and it completely coats it without too many imperfections. Most of the chefs in culinary school said this was the best method for coating them.

Call me psyco..but I just had a very good petit four session! Starting off with Lisa's Easy Petit Four instructions, then kicking in Leah's steps to coat was success!! Now I have 6 more dozen to make. I kept my tray of (cut) petit fours in the freezer and literally got one out at a time. Stabbed in on a very thin short knife and used my soup ladel to pour the fondant over. Twirled the knive like the flower nail and quick covered all four sides while holding at a light angle so I was always covering the top. Got a little bit at times on my hand, but the key is speed and quick coverage!!

I made my first petit fours today and it was a learning experience. I also started with Lisa's instructions and tried Leah's dipping method. I had some problems.

First, I had crumbs--cake probably wasn't frozen enough. Good idea to take one at a time out of the freezer.

Second, when I dipped them, I skewered the underside and turned them upside down to dunk in the icing. I had torted it and many times the top layer fell off! It wasn't sticking to the frozen buttercream. Any advice? Maybe you aren't supposed to dunk them. It sounds like ddaigle held them at an angle and poured fondant over them instead. I may try that tomorrow with the rest.

Lastly, I put a tsp of vanilla in, instead of the tsp of almond extract, and I didn't care for the taste of the icing. Maybe half a tsp would be better.

I dunk them totally upside down and only have torte-separation problems when they are not frozen enough.

KoryAK...I just did a total dunk on my batch last night! Very fast process. The only problem I had was I dunked too far and I got icing on the bottom of the petit four..which made it stick on the cooking rack more. After ruining one, I just took a very sharp knife and made very neat cuts all around the bottom to realease. ANd I scraped the underneath drippings with a spatula. I kept them constantly frozen and had no problem.

Save

Can someone please help me... I can not get Lisa's cakes and cupboards blog to open. I am trying to make petit fours and every where says to read her blog, but for some reason it says I have to be invited??!!??! Anyone know why?

I had it saved. I use to visit her site a lot. Now i can,t. so i deleted the save. Martha stewart use to have a tutorial on her site also. try that. hth

This is the one for Martha Stewart. hthhttp://www.marthastewart.com/911102/how-make-petit-four

Hi , this one is really great also.http://veganyumyum.com/2008/01/petits-fours/

wow...I just read my 5 year old response...I don't do petit fours like that anymore.    I put them on a cooling grid..line up 24 at a time and pour the icing over from a 4 cup measuring cup.

Which icing recipe are you using?  That blog link that was posted wouldn't let me log in, it said I had to be a member (?).  Thanks in advance!

http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-make-petit-fours/
 

hope this helps.