Belinda and Carol Bigold,
High Tea Bakery
High tea is still observed in Australia, and petit fours are a common complement. These gorgeous petit fours are an ideal hostess gift when dressed up in a cute gift box. Packaged rolled fondant can be purchased at Scoop ‘N Weigh or Michaels.
Ingredients
Cake
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp butter
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Poured Fondant
7 cups icing sugar
1/3 cup white corn syrup
1/3 cup boiling water
1 small jar raspberry jam
1 pkge white rolled fondant
food colouring, as desired
Method
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- With a mixer, beat eggs, vanilla and sugar until pale yellow, and double in bulk. Add sifted dry ingredients.
- In a saucepan, bring milk and butter to a boil.
- On low speed, slowly add hot milk to mixing bowl. Only mix to combine, finish folding together by hand.
- Pour in greased and floured 9″x12″ pan. Bake 30-35 mins.
Poured Fondant
- Sift icing sugar into bowl of mixer.
- In a separate bowl, dissolve corn syrup in boiling water.
- Slowly add syrup to icing sugar, mixing constantly until smooth and there are no lumps.
- Tint with desired food colouring.
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside.
Assembly
- With a knife, trim edges of baked cake until level. Cake has to be approx 1″ thick, too thick and petit four will topple when iced.
- Horizontally cut cake to form two layers.
- Spread thin layer of jam on bottom layer. Place second layer, cut side down, on top of jam.
- On parchment paper, unroll package of fondant into a rectangle. With a rolling pin, roll fondant as thin as possible.
- Spread a thin layer of poured fondant on top of assembled cake.
- Lay rolled fondant on top and trim excess.
- Wrap fondant cake in cellophane and freeze for at least 30 mins.
- Remove from freezer and cut into desired shapes with either cutters or a knife.
- Place cut pieces on a cooling rack. Place baking tray underneath to catch drips.
- Put poured fondant in piping bag with a 1/4″ opening.
- Working from the centre out, pipe poured fondant over petit four, making sure it falls down the sides.
- Allow cakes to set for 1 hr.
- Decorate petit fours as desired.
Yield 4 dozen