I’ve been on a pound cake kick lately. Last weekend I made two of them. One plain and another with strawberries. They both turned out really yummy.
Then, this weekend I wanted to try my hand at petit fours. You know … adorable, tiny layered cakes filled with fruit or frosting and covered in poured fondant or icing. They can be made from sponge cakes, genoise cakes, or pound cakes. Ding. Ding. Ding. That means more pound cake for me. I decided to go the whole nine yards. Little layers, syrup, marzipan… Looking back, I think my kitchen wishes I went the easy way. I should have just sliced 1-inch thick pieces from the pound cake loaf and then then cut out tiny cakes with a cutter. But no … that would be too easy.
Okay, before we get to the petit fours, let me tell you about the two pound cake loaves.
First up. Cream Cheese Pound Cake.
I couldn’t wait to slice into it.
Perfect.
Oh my… help me.
And the top… I could tunnel right through this thing.
But first, a little cream cheese icing.
Yes, it was as good as it looks.
The recipe made enough for two loaves, so on the second one I added some strawberries.
It was pretty fantastic, too.
Every last piece of it.
Strawberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake = YUM!
Here’s the recipe:
Toss the fruit with flour to help keep them from sinking to the bottom of the pan.Cream Cheese Pound Cake
Ingredients
Pound Cake
Cream Cheese Icing
Instructions
Notes
First, let me say… these were a lot of work. I’m glad I tried them, but a lot of work. Thank goodness they tasted great.
If you want to see a fantastic tutorial, check out this one from veganyumyum. Not only is it a really great step-by-step guide, but her photographs are also beautiful.
Line a jelly roll pan
with parchment paper. You’ll need two sheets to lay sideways so you can lift the cake out when it’s done. Use some butter and coat the paper. Then dust with flour.
I used the pound cake recipe above, minus the milk and strawberries and baked at 350 for about 30 minutes. Also, I accidentally omitted the milk. Turns out that was probably a good thing, because the cake baked right up to the edge of the pan. It might have spilled over with the milk.
After the cake is baked and cooled, trim off the outer edges and then cut it into eight equal sections. Next, use a serrated knife and cut the height of each section in half. Turn each layer cut side up and apply a small amount of syrup. I used a spray bottle, but you can also brush it on. Don’t saturate it though. Then spread on a thin layer of warmed raspberry jam so that you can still see the cake through the jam. Stack the sections three layers high. (three layers of cake and two layers of filling.) Four would have made it too tall, based on the pound cake recipe used here.
Syrup = 1 cup sugar plus 2 cups water. Bring to a boil for approximately 3 minutes. Let cool.
Now, for marzipan. I finally found a reason to use this stuff. It has an almond flavor and is pretty tasty. Marzipan sometimes goes on the top layer of the petit four and I think really helps when you pour the icing on. Roll out the marzipan in a super thin layer. Then place it on top of each section of layered cake. Add simple syrup first to help the marzipan stick. Trim off any marzipan that overlaps the cake sections. Wrap each section in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The next day, cut the sections in small squares. Each three-layer cake section will give you 12 petit fours. And you can get at least 5 three-layer sections. That’s a lot of little cakes. (After the icing dried, I drizzled on some melted chocolate and added a few fondant flowers for decoration.)
The next day, dip these in poured fondant and place on a wire rack. Set a cookie sheet underneath to catch the drippings.
What I used for the poured fondant = 2 lb bag (@7.5 cups) powdered sugar, 1/2 cup light corn syrup, 1/3 cup water, 1 tsp vanilla extract. Heat on low and stir until everything is completely combined.
Pouring didn’t work so much for me. I dipped each of the four sides and then spooned a little over the top. This was by far the trickiest part. Getting the consistency right, covering the cakes smoothly. I made a HUGE gigantic mess.
Here’s a peek…
Again, I suggest visiting veganyumyum for a great how-to as I have no actual photos of the dipping, dripping, pouring or cursing.
I managed to get several out that looked pretty decent, though.
But by the end, I was out of icing, out of my mind and still had a bunch of uncovered little cakes. They stayed that way, too. I’ve convinced myself they taste better uncovered.
Petit fours. Been there. Done that.
This pound cake recipe is so great, it’s one of my staples now. Thank you!
Hi!
I love petit fours and yours look delicious! I was wondering if I could use a fluffy moist cake as the base instead of a pound cake. Do you think the cake will be able to hold up to the icing’s weight?
dipping, pouring, Piping and cursing. What a mess these things are! I tried heating the fondant and applying it with a piping bag. It worked if the stuff was hot enough to burn fingers through the piping bag. Its a shame because the pound cake recipe is perfect for this and my home made peach jam filled it beautifully. But Im not doing these again. To. Much. Mess. and swearing…
b on jour svp je veut d’autre recette gâteaux facil merci
Just a thought to do with any of the messy petit fours and/or the trimmings – use them in a trifle. Then you have 2 desserts at once.
Fantastic!!!!
Holy cow! That was the best pound cake I have ever eaten in my life! I am completely addicted!
I just tried this recipe yesterday (with the strawberries, of course!) and made a blog post about it:
http://hermitthefrogblog.blogspot.ca/
It turned out to be quite delicious. I did the toothpick test on the loaves, but even after about 10 minutes, the toothpick didn’t come out clean. The loaves weren’t doughy, though, so I guess things turned out okay.
I might try the petits fours as well, but it seems a bit daunting.
Thanks for sharing the recipe!
What size jelly roll pan did you use?
My friend is opening a small town bakery and I think these would be top sellers there! Beautiful cakes! I love pound cake too!
I’ve made the pound cake twice, and each time it was devoured. I like that it’s not overwhelmingly sweet, and the consistency can’t be beat!
I would like to bake and send my niece some petit fours (she’s pregnant and craving them). How would you recommend I package them for mailing?
I am wanting to make some red velvet cake petit fours and cover them in white chocolate for my family this year. Thing is they live east coast, I live west. (Ga to Wa) so they won’t be able to be refrigerated. They will be shipped overnight but do you think it would be okay? How long do you suspect they would last? No cream cheese or fillings, just cake and chocolate covering – wrapped tight. Any ideas?
A tip for the poured fondant… pour it into a small cup and make sure the fondant is warm but not hot.. Too hot and it will be transparent but too cold and it will be a globby mess! Good Luck!
it looks yummy… wanna try and make some too… :)
Will you be able to bake some macarons
today i’m on a pound cake kick too… but really wanting cupcakes. have you ever tried making pound cake cupcakes? do you think that would even work textur-wise?
Is there any ingredient that can replace corn syrup and will still keep the fondant together? Can’t wait to make this.
JUST LOVE YOUR COMMENTS & Sense of humor here “But by the end, I was out of icing, out of my mind and still had a bunch of uncovered little cakes. They stayed that way, too. I’ve convinced myself they taste better uncovered.Petit fours. Been there. Done that.”
I hear you girlfriend! Love BAKERELLA!!!
I tried to make these today before I saw your site. I found your site by looking for an easier recipe for petit fours. I got my recipe from Country Living and they did not explain how awful they are to make. ha ha Good tasting but a big mess. I finally gave up. I was just doing them the easy way with no filling and they were still a mess.
YYYYYYYYYYUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Mmm…I like plain pound cake with whipped cream and strawberries!
This was by far the BEST pound cake recipe I have ever used. I added the strawberries and tossed them lightly in flour (as suggested) but instead of putting them on-top, I put 2/3 of the batter into the pan, added the strawberries and then covered them with the remaining batter. They sunk slightly, but stayed at the 1/2 way point throughout the whole cake. We ate this without the frosting and it was AMAZING! Thank you for sharing these recipes. I can’t wait to try another!
I’ve made these before and yes it can get quite messy. I made the sandwiches with Victorian Sponge and I used a dollop of icing at the top of the cakes before covering them, which is the original way of making petit fours. I also had some left over fondant that I melted to cover them. It’s a good way of reusing the scraps.
One note: if you dont want to apply multiple layers to cover the sandwiches, you can make the melted fondant/frosting thicker. The idea really is just to cover it until you can’t see the cake beneath.
Well done! From the ones in the pic no one would ever guess how frustraingly fun the process was for you.
Just read this and soooo funnny: I made petit fours for the first time recently, and pouring the frosting on was the most curse-inducing step by far. I wound up holding each cake with a spatulas as I poured the warm frosting on (a mixture of water, confectioner’s sugar and Karo syrup). It helped somewhat with the unwieldiness of the cakes. But my kitchen hasn’t been such a mess (like a frosting/crumb/utensil bomb went off) since I made a 2-story gingerbread house one year at Christmas.
Looks delicious! Does anyone know if the cream cheese pound cake can be made with egg whites only? A bakery near me makes what they call a “Philly Fluff Cake” that I have been trying to make. I don’t think it has egg yolks. It’s very light and fluffy.
For the cream cheese pound cake, do we hav to preheat our oven.? Because in most pound cake recipes, they say NOT to preheat it. PLEASE REPLY.
3 cups of sugar.? Isn’t that too much.? :P
Thank you for the good writeup. It in fact was once a leisure account it. Look advanced to far brought agreeable from you! By the way, how could we keep up a correspondence?
wow!so cute! but I don’t know where I can find this “marzipan”…can you help me?
i don’t know who gave the recipe for the petit fours . but i laughed so hard just reading the recipe . God bless her heart i could relate with her. lol 1 but with her recipe im going to try
kate in california
Really superb.
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Dollars to Pounds
I really enjoy how you show your mistakes and that it isn’t always the easiest thing to do sometimes…but practice makes perfect. Thanks!
This website looks amazing!! Thanks for all this information. This is my first visit and sure not the last. :-)
MY first comment!! I am making the strawberry pound cake for my uncles birthday (I didn’t trust my mom to do it, she had a weird recipe) and have been DYING to make petit fours. I love baking, and probably bake a little to much, but as long as i bring them a treat, my teachers accept my batter coved. chocolate smudged. sometimes burnt homework. Thanks for all the inspiration!!
Just found your site, and happened across this. Here’s my experience from when I made petit fours, a number of years ago. I used an almond frangipane cake recipe (I think Odense has one on their site) and used chocolate in half of it. The almond frangipane cake was great for petit fours as it sliced perfectly and didn’t crumble at all. The dipping process was a bit messy, but they turned out awesome. I made a total of 4 different flavors (no jam; I used buttercream to fill mine): chocolate almond with vanilla buttercream and chocolate fondant (added melted chocolate to the fondant), chocolate almond with espresso filling and fondant, almond with vanilla filling and fondant and almond with cherry buttercream (I just added some chopped maraschino cherries) and cherry almond fondant (cherry juice and almond extract). I loved the entire process and got mega raves from my family who believed you could only get them from that mail order catalog place for way too much money, LOL.
Wow…just finished making petits fours…EXHAUSTED
Haha yup I’ve got almost half of mine uncovered,just like you:p
I have to say that I laughed so hard reading through your trials of making petit fours. You’ve got a great sense of humor! I feel exactly the same way about petit fours, and forever I have wondered how the heck do they make them look so good. Glad I am not the only one. My frosting didn’t pour either. That’s how I feel about the cake pops. I made some for chritmas for our children’s church and they were quite a hit! Thank you for your recipes and ideas. I use a heat-proof spatula and spread and pour the coating to cover the pops, I haven’t found an easier way. Thanks so much for sharing!
i should make does for valentine’s day.
I do NOT have the patience for petit fours. I’d like to think that I do, but I don’t. So I will stick with baking regular size cakes & decorating them. Thanks for sharing your hard work. :)
How many calories does the petite fours have?
I appreciate all of your creative ideas and pictures that you post. It would be great to see you on the Food Network showing us your stuff!
Hey bakerella,
I love your blog, absolutely wonderful.
I’m from indonesia, something i wanna ask to y??, here indonesia, we use grams on scaling something, so i don’t really understand about cups, oz, and 2 sticks of butter, can y?? please tell me the examples?
Like 2 cups flour = ….. Gr
50 oz of bla3 = …. Gr
Then 2 sticks of butter = …. Gr
So i can bake your recipe
Thx bakerella :)
Every holiday season, I bake Rainbow Cookies aka Neopolitan Cookies which are similar to petit fours, but the chocolate is only on one side . . . the recipe can be altered to have the icing poured over them . . . in fact, I entered a tray of these cookies in a bake off contest earlier today–still waiting to hear the final results . . . can forward the recipe if you’re interested. Daisy
I am soo glad I found this website, you are AMAZING, and you’re honest…what a hard combination to find!! Thank you so much for these wonderful ideas and saving my a**.
OMWord! I just discovered your blog and have been having fun looking at the delicious, mouth-watering recipes.
Will be making this fabulous pound cake tomorrow! YUM!
Bakerella — Your attempts at petiit fours is truly admirable. You are so talented, but even the masters must eventually find something that is nigh on impossible, right? So, to that end, I have 2 words for you: Rhodes Bakery. Petit fours to DIE FOR. And it’s right there in your town. Sorta. Over in Roswell on Holcomb Bridge Road. Closed Sun/Mon (I think), but go, go, go on a Wednesday (to give them time to make them fresh). Try the small ones, the large ones. Oh my! It’s my special treat for myself every time I go home to visit my family. Even my 4 year old daughter begs for them! :)
I made Petit Fours tonight! They’ve turned out well so far, just waiting on the frosting to set. I baked a Sour Cream Cake (pound cake recipe, baked in a sheet cake/jelly roll pan). Once the cake cooled, I turned it out of the pan and used a 2 inch by 2 inch square cookie cutter to cut out the Petit Fours. I warmed Apricot Preserves, Strawberry Jam, and Seedless Raspberry Jam, and cut each indivudual cake in half. I spread the inside thinly with the various preserves like a sandwich. I put the cakes back together, and stuck a skewer through the bottom (bottom side up on a pan) and froze them for 2 hours to make sure they were frozen very hard. I poured the frosting on the bottom side or each cake, then dipped the tops and sides in frosting. I stuck the skewers in floral foam wrapped in wax paper (cut small slits to stick the skewers in more easily) to catch the drips. They are drying now, and look great so far! I will let them dry for a couple more hours, then pipe pretty little flowers on the tops of them. Still a bit labor intensive, but much easier then measuring and stacking! I worked at a bakery for a while, and turned them on to this idea while I was there. It worked much more efficiently, as there are less steps involved. However, there are more cake scraps than measuring and cutting. Tomorrow’s agenda: Cake balls with the scraps!! :D
I looked EVERYWHERE online to find a good recipe and, lo and behold, I come back to Bakerella! I should have known!
I made these for my daughter’s bridal shower yesterday and everyone loved them! They were so cute! I used a variation of your cream cheese frosting, though. So good!
Even the estrogen-level’s-too-high-around-here mocking husbands tried them later and with raised eyebrows exclaimed how good they were! Amazing!
Thanks for making the party perfect!
Help! I REALLY want to make some Petit Fours but every single recipe I see has corn syrup in, I live in NZ and we don’t have it here, I’ve read you can substitute it with your own mix of water and sugar but won’t that just turn out totally sweet?
Flouring the strawberries before hand worked perfectly- thank you!
this is an awesome site… thanks
they look so adorable !!!!
but mine … well … the are a horrible mess. they don’t look like petite fours, bit at least, if you don’t know what i was trying to make, mine look quite cute and yummy :)
SO much work, you’re right !!
oh p.s. my mess with the dripping was waaaaayyy bigger und messier !!! -.-
Oh and we cheat and use Sara Lee pound cake… My favorite would be apricot jam filling dipped in dark chocolate!
If you think these are good, my mom makes petit fors dipped in melted chocolate (dark or white) — I like them so much better than the fondant ones… not as sickeningly sweet… don’t get me wrong, I love traditional ones… I just like the chocolate ones that much MORE! :)
Oh and what annoynomous said #211. same thing with mine. Took longer to cook and found parts throughout were not fully done. What did I do wrong?
Bakerella, If wanted to make only 1 loaf for the pound cake, would I just half all the ingredients?? I made it for the first time and found that there was enough batter for 3 loaves!! It was delicious!! I made one plain and one with raspberries as I didn’t have any strawberries.
I LOVE these and I will make them for the block party this year. =]
to be petit fours dont there have to be a selection of four different types? otherwise its only two mini cakes
Hi Bakerella…I’ve visited your site before but not commented; just enjoyed viewing your work like the cakepops and that decadent marshmallow peanut butter brownie. I was wondering if you read these comments, could you answer my question on this poundcake recipe…could I substitute cake flour for the all-purpose? I think I have to adjust the amount, right? Thanks so much in advance if you respond!
Rani
Just made Cream cheese strawberry pound cake!! Yummy, i use whole wheat pastry flour for everything i bake, and it is delish!! Thank you soo much for all you do, you have made a baker out of me, my family is happy!!
I Like them there cute
Looks sooo cute i luv it!
LOVE THESE! They’re so elegant! Perfect for the upcoming home-school group meeting!
this is a perfect desert for a party
you are GREAT at what you do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And that is why they are so expensive in the bakery… tough work but oh so delious!!!
Bakerella – you rock! Ideas? awesome! Pics? Drool drool!
Noticing a lot of cake ends and frostings globs there… you are braver than I. But what about sticking your odds and ends in the freezer (recycle a cereal box liner bag) and saving them up for parfaits with your fave ice cream? Great treat for you little helper(s)
someone wrote food porn, what a hoot!
Thanks for the ideas! I am making petit fours for my sister’s wedding and am trying a trial run this weekend. It will be my first time making them. I have done three wedding cakes before and each time they are bigger and better so I hope they turn out! Thanks again for all of your work!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/photo.php?pid=2799986&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=152656877005&aid=-1&id=502684214&oid=152656877005
someone is using ur photos to sell baked goodies. i think thats wrong
Yummmmmm, I’m finding some great new ideas! Love your site..
Awesome!
The Petit Fours are so beautiful! Unfortunately, I don't have nearly enough patience to attempt such a thing, but I still had a great time oogling yours.
I made 2 pound cakes, one with strawberries and one plain. They both required much more time to bake than yours did and they still came out very "uncooked" on the bottom half. What do you suppose I did wrong? Yours looked so beautiful in the pictures, but mine were very heavy.
I have this cheese-cake in the owen right now with strawberries, smells nice :) But I actually wanted to say, you have really cool and minimal poster designs with your cupcake photos and all the things. I work as a graphic designer and I really love your work!! :)
Thanks for the eye candy! Made my mouth water…I will definitely try those pound cake recipes…thanks for the yummiest recipe..
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Reenee
You cannot go wrong on the best security systems
Those look amazing!Pound cake, neutella and sliced bananas.. sandwich style on the george forman grill…yummy!!!!!!!!1
thanks for the recipes!!!!
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Reenee
Home Security Systems no CREDIT CHECK everyone is approved
i saw on a site recently that when they made petit fours, instead of dipping them on all sides, the icing was thin enough to pour over the cakes
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Glovin
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They are looking so yummy…
so cute i love cup cake…
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susana
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Yummy they looks very delicious…
Fantastic recipe thanks for sharing…It looks soo yummy..
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susana
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Just so you know, they're actually called petits fours. Both are plural in French :) They're very pretty but I'm afraid too much work for me!
oh and by the way, if I want to fill them with stuff…usually chocolate(haha)…I just either inject it into the batter before baking or push chips in.
and just wanted to say BTW I saw you on Martha and ever since then I have been completely addicted to your blog, keep up the good work! :)
-Suzie
I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE petit fours, they are so adorable, but I too found it way too tendious to cover all of the little sides on each one…so I found a way to make them fast-I got one of the new wilton silicone browine baking pan, with 24 cavities, and OH MAN, this makes petit fours, and brownies and any batter you want to make bite sized, a total breeze. They pop right out. I'm pretty sure its magic. Then I just microwave icing and use bamboo skewers and dip them in. Then I decorate with sprinkles, marzipan flowers and fruit…you name it! :)
-Suzie
They look delicious!! thanks for the recipes! i've made simple syrup to cover my wedding cakes before to lock in moisture but it makes the cake sooooooo sweet.
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Vince
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