Conversation Heart Petits Fours
A petit four is a bite-size French pastry. These mini cakes are glazed with pouring fondant and decorated to look like the iconic Valentine's Day conversation heart candies. You can get creative and decorate them with any expression you'd like.
Yield: Makes 14 to 16 four-layer petits fours
Things you'll need
Ingredients- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- ½ cup water
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract Seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean
- 6 large eggs, separated
- 1/2 cup tart candies, finely crushed
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
Pouring Fondant
- 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
- 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 1/4 cup light corn syrup
- 6 tablespoons hot water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Decorations
- 2 batches Pouring fondant
- Food coloring: white, pink, orange, yellow, green blue, purple and red
- 1 batch Royal Icing
Equipment
- Heart biscuit cutter: 2 x 2 ½ inches
- #1 Decorating tip
Let's get started!
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease four 9x13 inch rimmed baking sheets and line them with parchment paper.
- Make the chiffon cake: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 cup of the sugar, water, oil, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds and egg yolks. Pour the sugar mixture into the flour mixture and whisk until well combined.
- In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until frothy, about 4 minutes. Continue beating, slowly adding the remaining ½ cup sugar until stiff peaks form.
- Fold one-third of the egg whites into the batter and mix until well combined. Repeat two more times. Fold in the crushed candies.
- Divide the batter evenly among the prepared baking sheets and spread it evenly. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, until the cakes are firm to the touch, switching the pans from top to bottom and rotating them front to back halfway through.
- Let cool in the pans for 15 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.
- For the filling: Make the Swiss buttercream frosting.
- Stack the cakes on parchment, alternating the filling between them in this order: jam, frosting, jam, and top with frosting.
- Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes.
- Cut out individual heart cakes using the heart biscuit cutter.
Make the pouring fondant!
- Melt chocolate chips.
- In large bowl, mix powdered sugar, corn syrup, hot water, vanilla, and almond extract until smooth.
- Fold in the melted chocolate until well combined.
Time to decorate!
- Make the White Chocolate Pouring Fondant and mix in 1 ½ teaspoons white food coloring. Divide the fondant among 6 bowls. Tint each bowl with a different food coloring: pink, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.
- Set one-sixth of the heart cakes on a wire rack over parchment paper. Using a heatproof measuring cup with a spout, pour one of the fondant colors over the cakes.
- Repeat with the remaining fondant colors and cakes.
- Let the fondant dry, about 30 minutes.
- Make the Royal Icing. Tint red and scoop into a decorating bag fitted with a #1 tip.
- Pipe messages onto each heart petit four.
Written By Rosanna Pansino
