Petit Four Glacée

Unglazed round and pyramid petits fours.
The pink buttercream is raspberry, the green is
pistachio, and the brown is coffee.

Glazed petits fours come in all sorts of varieties, we made three: domed, pyramid, and square. When we started these last class, the chef said that we would love to learn how to make then and, by the time we were done, love that we would never have to make them again (unless they show up on a test.) She was right. They were really interesting to learn and really nice to make and eat, but thank goodness we are done making them!

Glazed round petits fours.

Domed petits fours, which remind me (appearance-wise) of Sarah Bernhardts, are made with a small round of tender, almondy cake topped with flavored buttercream and coated in chocolate glaze.

Glazed pyramid petits fours.

Pyramid petits fours are made with the same cake with three flavors of buttercream. These are a bit harder though, they are strips of the cake, with stripes of buttercream to form a "pyramid." The whole thing coated in chocolate glaze and when the glaze starts to set but isn't totally hard, the log is sliced into petit four sized pieces.

Square petits fours

The square petits fours are two layers of the almond cake sandwiched together with apricot jam topped with marzipan, glazed with colored fondant glaze (as opposed to rolled fondant), and decorated with royal icing. These are a bit of a pain, because the fondant is very hard to get exactly right and I'm not the best with intricate decorations, but they are definitely my favorite of the three. I love how pretty they are (even if my glazing and decorating was less than perfect) and the marzipan adds a welcome extra kick of almond. Plus, I'm not a huge fan of the buttercream we make in class, it's too sugary.

Decorated square petits fours. I think the box is my favorite.