Recipe: Petits Fours, Genoise for Petits Fours, Petits Fours Glaces, Apricot Glaze, Mock Fondant, Basic Simple Syrup, Mocha Fondant

Genoise for Petits Fours:

Genoise, the French butter spongecake, is the most versatile cake you can make. It is rich, yet light and delicate. Any dessert cake made with layers of genoise is unforgettably delicious. It is a 1-bowl cake and not at all difficult to make when directions are followed.

6 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup sifted flour (1 1/2 cups for petite fours)
1/2 cup sweet butter, melted and clarified
1 teaspoon vanilla

Set oven at 350 degrees F. Grease and lightly flour 1 of the following for your needs:

two 9-inch layer-cake tins
three 7-inch layer-cake tins
one 11 x 16 jelly-roll pan for petite fours
two shallow 10-inch layer-cake tins

In a large bowl combine eggs and sugar. Stir for a minute, or until they are just combined. Set bowl over a saucepan containing 1 or 2 inches of hot water. Water in pan should not touch bowl; nor should it ever be allowed to boil Place saucepan containing bowl over low heat for 5 to 10 minutes, or until eggs are lukewarm. Heating the eggs help them whip to greater volume.

It is not necessary to beat them continuously as they are warming. They should, however, be lightly stirred 3 or 4 times to prevent them from cooking at bottom of bowl.

When eggs feel lukewarm to your finger and look like a bright yellow syrup, remove bowl from heat. Begin to beat, preferably with an electric mixer. Beat at high speed for 10 to 15 minutes, scraping sides of bowl with a rubber spatula when necessary, until syrup becomes light, fluffy, and cool. It will almost triple in bulk and look much like whipped cream. It is the air beaten into the eggs that gives genoise its lightness.

Sprinkle flour, a little at a time, on top of the whipped eggs. Fold in gently, adding slightly cooled, clarified butter and vanilla. Folding can be done with electric mixer turned to lowest speed, or by hand. Best done by hand. Be especially careful not to overmix.

Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake in preheated oven 25 to 30 minutes, or until cakes pull away from sides of pans and are golden brown and springy when touched lightly on top.

Remove from pans immediately and cool on cake rack.

Almost all petits fours freeze well before they are iced. Not all petits fours require an icing glazed with fondant. This is tricky to make and use. Traditionally, petits fours are served in small, individual paper cases.

Petits Fours Glaces:

Genoise for petits fours baked in an 11 x 16 jelly-roll pan

1 cup apricot jam, raspberry jam or butter cream
1 cup apricot glaze
3 cups fondant or mock fondant
2 teaspoons vanilla or any liqueur
1 tablespoons strong coffee
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted

To make the little iced geometric cakes most people think of as petits fours, bake a sheet of genoise for petits fours in an 11 x 16 jelly-roll pan. The baked sheets of cake should not be more than 3/4 inch high. If possible, bake the cake a day ahead so it can be cut more easily.

Cut the cake in half, making 2 layers, each 8 x 11. Spread 1 layer with a thin layer of apricot or raspberry jam.If desired, any butter cream may be substituted for jam. Place second layer on top of first. If butter cream is used, chill cake slightly.

Brush top with hot apricot glaze. Trim off all crisp edges. Allow glaze to dry for a few minutes. Then, using a long knife with a serrated edge, cut cake into even 1-inch shapes; cubes, rectangles, triangles, etc. A ruler may be used for making cakes of equal size. Rounds can be cut with a cooky cutter, although there is much waste. Wipe knife edge off with a damp sponge after each slice.

Place 1/3 of the little cakes on a cake rack, leaving some space between them. Set rack in a shallow pan.

Warm the fondant or mock fondant. Flavor it with vanilla or a liqueur. When lukewarm, spoon or pour plenty of icing in the center of each cake so that it will run down and coat sides. Excess will drip into pan under rack.

Scrape up drippings and return them to pan of vanilla fondant. Add coffee to flavor fondant. Reheat what is now coffee fondant to lukewarm. If necessary, thin it with a little syrup or water.

Arrange another third of the cakes on a second cake rack. Place rack in shallow pan. Cover tops and sides of the little cakes with coffee fondant. Scrape icing up and return in to pan.

Flavor remaining coffee fondant with chocolate. The chocolate flavor and color will now dominate. Place remaining cakes on a third rack and cover with chocolate fondant.

Allow all the cakes to dry about 10 minutes. Loosen from racks with a spatula. Place each in a tiny paper case and, if desired, decorate.

Simple decorations can be very beautiful: crushed bits of crystalized violets or green pistachio nuts; or prepare ad additional 1/2 cup of fondant, coloring it as you like. It should be a little thicker than the fondant used for pouring. Fill a paper cornucopia with the colored fondant and cut a tiny hole in the pointed end. Make dots, lines. scrolls; a variety of patterns can be improvised. Each little cake needs no more than the tiniest bit of decorations. Yield: approximately 90.

Apricot Glaze:

1 cup sieved apricot jam
1 to 4 tablespoons cognac, kirsch, applejack, or any liqueur (optional).

Heat apricot jam in a saucepan until it is boiling. Stir in preferred flavoring. Use glaze while it is hot.

Mock Fondant:

Much easier to make than real fondant, and more quickly prepared, this recipe provides an excellent substitute if you have on hand a jar of the basic simple syrup, which keeps almost indefinitely. For best results, pour mock fondant over cake which has first been lightly brushed with hot apricot glaze.

BASIC SIMPLE SYRUP:

2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup white corn syrup
1 1/4 cups water

Combine sugar, corn syrup, and water in a large saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar is completely dissolved. When it looks clear, wash down sides of saucepan with a brush dipped in cold water. Place lid on saucepan for 5 minutes so that steam will further dissolve any sugar crystals.

Remove lid. Raise heat. Boil for 5 minutes without stirring. Cool syrup, pour into jars, and cover tightly. Store for future use.

Note: if sugar has not been thoroughly dissolved, the syrup, after a week or even less, may form large crystals in the bottom of the jar. The presence of crystals will not hurt the syrup, but it is wasteful, because the more crystals the less syrup you will have.

MOCHA FONDANT:

1/2 cup cooled basic simple syrup
1 1/2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately)
1 teaspoon egg white
1 teaspoon melted butter

Place syrup in a saucepan. Add enough sifted confectioners' sugar to make a fairly stiff paste. It should be a bit too thick to pour or spread by itself. Place saucepan over low heat and warm, stirring constantly till fondant is lukewarm. Be careful not to overheat, or the icing will not be shiny.

Beat in a teaspoon each of egg white and melted butter. If icing is still too thick, add additional syrup or flavoring liquid to thin it. If it becomes too thin, add more confectioners' sugar. This is enough mock fondant for the top of a 9-inch layer cake.

Flavor with any one of the following, or any flavor of your choice:

1 ounce melted unsweetened chocolate
1 tablespoon extra-strong coffee
2 tablespoons rum
2 tablespoons any liqueur
1 teaspoon vanilla.