petit fours

As an extra credit thing for my country report, I decided to make petit fours. These are fancy french desserts that are pretty much just tiny, almost bite-sized cakes covered in glaze or frosting. (yum) Here is what you need:

        Two cakes (I made two simple vanilla and chocolate cakes, 9 by 9 in. squares)

                       strawberry/blueberry/whatever you like jam                       frosting or glaze
                       bread knife                                                                           butter knife
                       ladle/spoon                                    

First things first: wash your hands. Outrageously important. Once you have done that, cut the tops, bottoms, and edges off the cakes, then cut each cake into equally sized squares with a bread knife. Take one square of each flavor (you should have two) and cut them each in half the long way, so you have the top and bottom half of each square. Then, once you have decided which flavor you want on top, use the butter knife to spread a layer of jam onto your bottom flavor, then place the top flavor on top of the jam. Do that with the rest of the squares.

 Now would be a good time to heat up your frosting/glaze to soften it. Put your layered square things on wire cooling racks on top of wax paper and ladle or spoon the frosting/glaze over them, allowing it to drip down the sides.

glazed petit fours

Wait for it to dry, then serve!

Other Ideas
You can use frosting for the middle layer instead of jam, if you like. Also, you can decorate the tops with icing or something similar. I made a simple swirly design with store-bought edible flavorless black sparkly decorating gel that is easy to use and comes in lots of different colors at target. Sounds too good to be true, right? Anyway, I highly recommend using this product. It's your choice, though!