Petits Fours - cake and icing question

i have made petit fours using the same batter i use for making cakes. you make a 9x13 cake and freeze for a little while when its done for easier cutting. i brush them with an apricot glaze then follow with a glace' icing. once they firm up a bit you can then decorate them with buttercream, royal, or fondant.

hi I have been wondering what is a glace icing

it's basically sifted powdered sugar mixed with a little water or milk and some sort of flavoring.

I usually have an order at least once a month for petit fours. I tried lots of different recipes in the beginning trying to get the best tasting, easiest cutting and best to cover cake - all the while using my family and friends as taste testers -- and the recipe that won hands down - was simply the Betty Crocker Pound Cake mix from a box. It calls for either 3/4 cup water or milk - so I use 1/4 cup 2% milk and 1/2 cup water and then add 1 tsp of almond flavoring.

I also spread a good layer of buttercream on top of the cake before freezing it - which I freeze the cake to make it easier to cut and cover with icing.

For the icing I used the poured fondant icing from here which is corn syrup, water, powdered sugar, almond flavoring and then I also add about 4 squares of melted vanilla almond bark to it - to me this helps the icing be a little thicker on the cakes and covers much better too.

I have also found that the fastest and simplest way to pour the icing on the cakes is to place them about 2 inches apart on a cooling rack sitting over a cookie sheet, put the icing in a 32 oz styrofoam cup and sort of make a spout with the cup as you tilt it and slowly pour around the 4 sides and then cover the top - then on to the next one. I get less crumbs in the excess icing this way and it covers and goes quickly.

HTH -- good luck

Suze

thanks this was very helpful

So you cover the sides FIRST, then the top? Wow, that sounds like it would solve the problem I had with the icing not adhering to the sides of the cakes when I poured it over the top!

Exactly IndyDebi -- I tried everything and every way to cover or dunk them - nothing worked well - until I had a friend of mine come to help me with a 20 dozen order a few years ago. She makes candles and she walked in with the styrofoam cups and told me that she uses them to pour the hot candle wax evenly in the molds to prevent air bubbles from forming - so we tried it with the petit fours and it was amazing how well it covered the sides and how fast it goes.

Now unless you are a master at cutting perfectly straight sides you will still have to patch a few places - and I use my tapered offset spatula for that - just a light touch with a little icing usually does the trick.

And humminbird - the buttercream doesn't get messing because I start the fondant in the double boiler and then take the frozen cake out of the freezer with the equally frozen buttercream on top and use a ruler and bread knife, cut the edges off first and then cut the squares 1.5 x 1.5 seperate onto the racks and by then the icing is ready to pour over. Usually by the time I get the second pan covered the first pan of petit fours are dry enough to put in liners and then I let them finishing drying before I put in the bakery boxes.

No - i don't use any syrup or fruit filling -- I have tried it with several of my best customers and they don't like it - I tried apricot, raspberry and strawberry - and everyone just wanted the almond flavoring.

Let me know if I can help anymore with the process.

Suze

After the petits fours are iced can they go back in the freezer? If so how would you defrost them and how long do you think that would take? I am making some for my daughter's birthday and want to do as much as possible before (need to make around 50 of them). But if they can not how long do you think they would keep in a cool place?

Thanks!!

You can freeze them, just make sure they are in a sealed container. Let them "thaw" in the fridge to prevent the sweat beads. Then give them about an hour at room temperature before eating. 

I made powdered sugar icing today for my petit fours.  It was VERY grainy....what did I do wrong?  I followed the sugar, water, vanilla, coloring recipe??  help!  thanks!

Sift your powdered sugar first.

  I did....I didn't boil the water & corn syrup...I used a double boiler....was this the wrong thing to do?