Petit Fours: Round One

My kitchen looks like a tornado ripped through Candyland and I think I just gave myself diabetes. Round one will be chalked up as a "learning experience." Mes petits gâteaux are actually little packages from Satan. Ok, maybe they weren't that much trouble, but I just spent an entire hour mixing icing. The icing was really the only terrible part. Icing *shudder*...



I started this adventure by making a French style sponge from The Cake Bible, the end-all authority on cake. The cake turned out pretty well and I didn't have much trouble with all the eggs. I think I'm finally getting the hang of mixing egg whites.

This type of sponge cake requires you soak it with a simple syrup. I opted to try out two flavors: Benedictine and Creme de Violette (both liqueurs.) I thought these would be distinct flavors, but, as I found later, it turned out to be fairly subtle. I also thought a layer of whipped cream would keep things moist once the cakes were coated with icing. Mistake one. 

I quartered the cake, soaked each quarter with the syrup, and then sandwiched the whipped cream to make two cake halves. The cake halves chilled in the fridge for about an hour while I took Bailey to the park. 

Once back in the kitchen, I attempted to make Martha Stewart's recipe for petit fours icing. Mistake two. What looked like a smooth, easy to pour frosting on the web video is in reality the pastry version of wallpaper paste. I took FOR-EV-ER to mix. And in the end, I had to alter it by adding water to even make it pourable. And then came the actually icing of cakes. Oy. The first batch of icing was still too thick and just piled up on top of the cakes without really coating the sides. The second batch was too runny and just dripped on to the counter. This second batch also saw my first experience with gel food coloring. Just FYI: Golden Yellow gel food coloring is forever. It is also the equivalent of school bus yellow. Apparently less is more here. Not heading the story of Goldylocks, I did not try a third batch. 

Other than the icing 'splosion on my counter, I judge this attempt a better start than I anticipated. They taste fine, despite looking lumpy and maybe radioactive. Attempt number two will involve testing a different sponge as well as refining the icing process. I also have a jar of lemon curd I'm going to try using as a filling in place of the whipped cream. 

This is the icing leftover on my counter.


Lessons learned:
- cold dairy and hot sugar are not friends. The whipped cream filling did not like it when I poured warm icing on it. It also didn't handle the cookie cutter very well after chilling. 
- Martha Stewart is a liar. Her icing sucks. 
- I can bake with eggs, yes I can.