Petit Fours

Petit Fours are small decorated tea cakes. The direct translation means "little oven".
I love petit fours. Cute little bite size pieces of edible art. Perfect for afternoon tea, parties and showers. They are most often made from poundcake, with fondant poured over them. I choose to make these ones from chocolate sponge cake, soaked in black cherry vodka, and layered with organic cherry spread.

Here's a mini tutorial:

It is easiest to cut these straight from the freezer...

After the first coat, I needed to use 3. How many coats you need will depend on your cake as well as your icing!

After they set I decorated them with flowers made from fondant.

They are alot of work, but the results are worth it. These also make great gifts when packaged in chocolate/candy boxes.

Birthday Bites!

I recently made two very special birthday cakes. The first was for my boyfriend. I had to think about the design of this cake for quiet a while. I wanted something exciting and eye catching, but the real challenge for this cake was for it to not look cute and girlie. This would be the difficult part for me indeed!

I thought of his favorite colors first, red and black. Mike also plays drums, so something kind of rock and roll came to mind, so I choose shapes that would give this cake kind of like a "tattoo" type of feel. The skull and crossbones fit into this theme as well, perfect!

End result:

The top tier of the cake is a rich and flavorful carrot cake. Sweet carrot and spice from cinnamon gives this cake the most irresistible taste and aroma. Filled with cream cheese icing sweeten with honey. The bottom tier is Le Gateau's signature cake: Chiffon Sponge soaked in Grand Marnier syrup with vanilla butter cream. I had made this cake many times before for weddings and other occasions so I knew he liked this cake. This cake was a definite success, Mike loved it!

The second birthday cake was for my twin sister and myself! My sister was a bit surprised when I called her to let her know I had started working on a cake, " Your making your own birthday cake?!" as if I deserved some sort of break from cake making. But for me it wasn't even a question, its a excuse to make cake! Besides, I was in the mood for making flowers.

Again, this was carrot cake. I have to say, I've been making carrot cake a lot lately. I think its pretty underrated! I find a lot of people prefer it to chocolate! This cake was the perfect end to our birthday dinner with our family.

August Bridal Showers

I made this cake for for a very special bride to be, a friend of mine since grade school. As one of her bridesmaids it was my job to make sure she had the perfect bridal shower, that means we needed the perfect cake! This bride wanted simple but stunning. This cake was designed as a mini version of the cake to be served at her wedding, pink being her wedding colour. The bottom tier is 6" and the top is 3.5". Inside is a rich chocolate cake with layer of raspberry preserves and creamy chocolate ganache filling.

Here's the recipe:

2 cups all-purpose flour (I recommend unbleached organic if available)

1 cup unsweetened cocoa

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar (again, organic!)

4 large eggs (free range)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups milk (organic)

Method-

1. preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 13" by 9" pan OR three 8" round cake pans OR 36 muffin pans. Line with paper.

2. In a medium bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda and salt.

3. In a large bowl mix at low speed butter and sugar. once they are blended beat at high speed until light and fluffy (about 5 mins).

Reduce to medium/low speed and add eggs one at a time. Scrape down sides.

4. Alternate flour mixture and milk into the bowl, beat until smooth.

5. Pour into prepared pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean - about 25-45 depending on the size of the cake.

This cake was a hit at the shower!