Petit Fours

I'm coming clean, here. I love tiny desserts. When I go to bakeries, I spent a good ten minutes eying the colorful suckers before I finally settle on a loaf of bread.

So, naturally, when I heard that a friend was having a birthday, I jumped at the chance to make single-serving cakes. I had a box of seedless mandarins sitting around, begging to be used, so I decided to attempt to whip up some sort of spiced orange cake.

What I came up with was this: layers of alternating cakes - one featuring candied mandarins, and one earl gray spiked and syrup soaked. For the filling, I used raspberry preserves and raspberry buttercream frosting.

I decided to attempt to challenge myself, so I bought a candy thermometer and set about making my first batch of poured fondant frosting.

It ended up looking okay, but the taste was cloying and unpleasant and just left something to be desired. After trying it out on one cake, I used a bit as glue for raspberries, tossed the rest of the batch, and left the cakes basically naked and chocolate-drizzled.



I wasn't planning on posting this when I started out, so I eyeballed the whole thing and didn't write down any of the measurements. Next time someone has a party, though, I will definitely be writing this one out for you guys!