The campaign has begun, I'm bringing back the Petit Four! For those of you who are unaware, Petit Four simply translated means 'small oven', but is otherwise known as a sweet or savoury bite. Commonly served as an after dinner sweet served with tea and coffee, these little bite sized pieces of heaven are seriously under rated and need some decent air time. So this Mothers Day, forget the large scale cake dominating your afternoon tea or dessert table and let the Petit Fours be the focus.
We decided to draw inspiration from an old Valentines Day favourite of heart shaped 'I Luv U' candy (featured above) and create a Petit Four that will have your Mum smiling this Mothers Day. Be as loving as you like with your messages, or even be a bit naughty and consider messages like 'Feed Me', 'Clean Me' or even 'Iron Me'!
These are pretty simple to make but you will need the following:
Small heart shaped cookie cutter/s
Palette knife
Piping bag (bought or home made)
A large square white chocolate mud cake (packet or home made)
Soft gel pastes (pale pink, violet, lemon yellow, orange, pale green - we use the brand 'AmeriColours' available at most cake shops)
Butter Cream:
300g softened butter
500g icing sugar
Royal Icing:
300g icing sugar
1 egg white
Red soft gel paste
1. Using a serrated knife trim the top off your mud cake to ensure a flat top. If you want a ganache or cream filling in your cake, split the cake in half and fill and place back together. Click here for a good ganache recipe.
2. Using heart shaped cutter/s cut your shapes and set aside on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
3. Place your cake hearts in the freezer until they become firm. This will avoid any crumbling when you mask the tops with butter cream.
4. Make your butter cream by beating together your butter and icing sugar with electric beaters until light and fluffy.
5. Separate the butter cream into six different bowls for colouring.
6. Place one drop of each gel paste into five of the bowls and mix well to combine. Leave one uncoloured as a neutral cream.
7. Remove your cakes from the freezer and place the cutter/s back over each of the cakes to mask the top. This will ensure a sharp edge with your butter cream.
8. Using a palette knife spread a decent amount of one of the coloured butter creams onto the cake and scrape the top and sides for a smooth finish. Repeat the process with the other cakes and colours.
9. Make the royal icing by mixing your icing sugar and egg white together in a bowl until combined then adding the red gel paste gradually until desired colour is achieved. Load into your piping bag and with a fine nozzle/tip free pipe your text.
And that's it! Too easy. As per usual......enjoy, and Happy Mothers Day x
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