Petit Fours

Begin by making your favourite pound cake recipe. I suggest a moister recipe so that the petit fours will hold up a little longer. Line a 12x18" jelly roll pan with baking parchment. The recipe I was given makes a little more than the pan will hold, so a small loaf can be made in addition. This is the recipe, but I was not happy with it. I only provide it so that you can compare it to your own and see amounts: Pound Cake 1 cup butter 1 1/4 cup shortening 2 1/3 cup fine sugar 2 cups eggs (10 eggs) 4 1/3 cups cake and pastry flour Cream butter, shortening and sugar. Add eggs slowly and cream well. Add sifted flour only till incorporated. Bake at 350 F for approx. 35 minutes. Remove. When cool, cut the sheet in half, wrap and freeze for 1 day. (One full sheet makes approx 15 dozen petit fours.) The next day, while still frozen, even off the surface of the cake. Turn it over and remove the parchment paper. Leave the cake upside this way. Spread a THIN coat of jam (raspberry) over this surface. (Too much will ooze when cutting). Roll out marzipan on some cornstarch or icing sugar to a rectangle that will fit your cake. It should be no more than 1/8 thick. Roll it up as you would a pastry, preferably on a dowel and cover the cake top. Smooth your hands over the surface to expel air bubbles. Using your baking sheet, slide the cake on and flip it over so that the marzipan is now on the bottom. You will be working this way. Using a sharp knife, cut strips approx. 1 1/4 inches wide. From each strip, either cut squares, diamonds and triangles, etc., or use petit fours cutters (as you would use a cookie cutter) Petit fours cutters are 1 3/4- 2 deep and approx. 1 in diameter. They come in circles, ovals, hearts etc. Although extremely difficult to find, they are apparently in the JB Prince catalogue (New York). Not cheap either. The petit fours are then placed well-spaced, upright on a wire rack that has a clean baking sheet underneath. Soft fondant or icing fondant is heated slowly in a double boiler. It can be coloured in pastel shades or left white. A small amount is poured into a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Working directly over each petit fours, make circular spirals over the top moving out in wider circles allowing the fondant to drip down completely covering the top and sides, Since the cake is cold from being frozen, the fondant will set quickly. Another method which goes faster but uses up more icing (although it can be scraped and reheated in the double boiler) is pouring slowly over each petit fours. This seems like a fairly easy thing to do, but it is amazing how often you will leave an open space somewhere on the four sides. Keep checking because it will not look good if you have to go back later. Allow the petit fours to set. The tops can be decorated with piping gel (cherries look nice) or on a white petit fours, colour a bit of the soft fondant with pink. With a paper cone made from baking parchment, cut a teeny tip. Draw a spiral over the top or zigzag on an angle. Silver dragees are nice too. You may want to colour code your shapes, so that the triangles all have the colour and design etc. Bonus: Any scraps of cake, jam and marzipan, especially if youre using the cutters can be mixed with some buttercream and rum. Shape into little balls or rounded cones. Dip in chocolate. Sprinkle with gold flakes if desired. These are professional petit fours as I was taught. I am considering slicing the pound cake horizontally and adding a thin layer of buttercream before I do the jam and marzipan thing. I think it will add another dimension and keep them longer.