We had been warned that this would be one of the toughest classes in the entire curriculum, so I entered lesson 56 with great trepidation. The almond cakes were already baked and filled with raspberry jam and the class was about to begin. As I looked around the kitchen, everyone seemed as nervous as I was and we were all frantically trying to draw some possible options for our decorations. The challenge we were given was to create 12 identical petits fours…seemed simple enough, but because of the warning we had been given, I knew I must have been missing something.

As class started, we each chose a shape and color for our petits fours. Our chef wanted to make sure that there were no more than two of the same shape or color for our final display. I choose green squares, figuring that at least I knew I could cut a square! From there, my partner and I started to cut up the cake. Oy. This cake was so soft that it was really difficult to try and cut it in even lines. After spending about 45 minutes trying to cut 12 squares from the cake, we were ready to ice them.

To ice petits fours, you take some pouring fondant and loosen it slightly by mixing it over steam. This process takes seemingly forever! But once we had our fondant to a runny consistency, we were ready to try and cover our petit fours. What an ordeal! The fondant wasn’t quite liquidy and once you pour some onto a petit four, you can’t go back over it or you will wind up seeing a streak in the final product. It took a lot of practice until we got the hang of covering the petit four completely, but not drenching it in too much icing.

Then finally we were up to decorating, where I made sure to choose a simple line and dot pattern that I knew I could replicate.

All in all, the class wasn’t as bad as I had been expecting, but unfortunately, the petits fours didn’t taste nearly as good as they looked. I think this is one dessert that could certainly use a modern twist and I definitely can’t say that I plan on starting a petits fours business anytime soon!