Delicate and sweet, these lemon berry petit fours are bite-size mini cakes perfect for weddings, parties, tea time, bridal and baby showers. Topped with a simple white chocolate garnish, these petit fours are easy and approachable. Perfect for beginners!
We’re in peak wedding/brunch/bridal shower/spring season, so there’s been a lot of buzz about petit fours lately. Admittedly, I’ve never made them before but have always enjoyed the several varieties I’ve tasted. Always up for a new baking adventure, and eager to expand my spring dessert recipes and Mother’s Day recipes, I decided to make these petite cakes my personal goal for the spring season.
And I’m excited to share my results with you!! These lemon berry petit fours are flavorful and moist, cute and tiny, simple and sweet.
Types of Petit Fours Popular examples include sable beurre, palmiers, duchesses, and macarons. They might also have a jam, ganache, or dried fruit filling. Petits fours glaces: Tiny cakes that are topped with marzipan and then enrobed in either fondant or chocolate.
White Chocolate for Petit Fours “Icing”
Like I mention above, petit fours are usually covered in fondant. I wanted something a little less finicky, so I opted for white chocolate. Sure, they’re not as fancy looking but they’re still super cute… and really good! When applied lightly, the white chocolate thickens and sets, making these petit fours perfect for transporting and serving.
Melt the white chocolate with a little oil so it’s a thinner consistency for topping.
One tip: Use pure white chocolate or white chocolate that’s meant for melting. Pick up a 4 ounce bar of white chocolate from the baking aisle or white melting chips. (I use Ghirardelli brand white vanilla flavored melting chips.) White chocolate chips DO NOT melt down into the proper consistency; it will be too thick and taste grainy.
You could even use the lemon icing from this lemon pound cake instead. Much easier than fondant!
Garnish with sprinkles, edible flowers, white sixlets, or edible dragées.
Like always, there’s flavor options!
- Chocolate Raspberry: Replace lemon juice in cake with milk, replace lemon curd with more raspberry jam, and fill with chocolate buttercream instead.
- Lemon Coconut: Replace raspberry jam with more lemon curd and add 1 teaspoons coconut extract to cake and buttercream.
- Strawberry Champagne: Replace lemon juice in cake with champagne, the raspberry jam and lemon curd with your favorite strawberry jam, and vanilla buttercream with champagne buttercream.
Let me know if you try these for any special occasion!
How to Make Lemon Berry Petit Fours
I stuck with a cake recipe that I know works: my cream cheese pound cake. Pound cake has an ideal texture for petit fours because it won’t squish when you layer or cut the tiny cakes.
Let’s walk through the whole process together:
- Make cake batter: Since the cake will be filled and iced, I reduced the sugar in the original recipe. I also added a little lemon juice to flavor and thin out the batter and a little more baking powder—both produced a less dense crumb and a little more rise.
- Bake in a sheet pan: The most important part of this entire recipe is using the correct size baking pan. Use a 12×17 inch half sheet pan. The cake will overflow in small pans and be too thin in larger pans.
- Cut in rectangles: As the cake cools, it will shrink a bit. Have no fear, that’s totally normal. Peel the parchment off the bottom of the cake and slice into 6 even rectangles.
- Slice rectangles into 2 layers: Slice each rectangle in half. You’ll have 12 even rectangles that you will layer together to make four small 3 layer “cakes.”
- Prepare fillings: I used lemon curd and raspberry jam in one layer and a thick vanilla buttercream in another layer. Fresh, fruity, creamy, and sweet! Use any jam you prefer and you could even use lemon buttercream or chocolate buttercream.
- Layer with fillings: Spread fillings onto each rectangle, then layer together.
- Chill: The layers *must chill* in the refrigerator prior to cutting into small petit fours.
- Cut into squares: Cut each into squares.
- Top with white chocolate: More on the topping below.
This recipe yields 48 petit fours, but you can cut them smaller if you need more. As long as the layered cakes are sufficiently chilled, cutting into tiny squares is easy.
Introduction to Petit Fours
FAQ
What are the 4 components of petit four?
What is the most common type of cake used as a petit four bases?
What are the 5 characteristics of petit fours?
What are the different types of petit fours?
There are the traditional mini cakes as well as many other tiny French desserts that fall under the umbrella of “petit fours.” Here are a few of the different types: Petits fours sec: These are dry cookies baked at a low temperature for a long time. Popular examples include sable beurre, palmiers, duchesses, and macarons.
What does Petit Fours mean in French?
In French, the word ” petit four ” can literally be translated into small oven. Petit fours (or “mignardises”) generally refers to a small confectionary that can be sweet or savory. In America, “petit fours” most commonly refer to small little cakes. To decorate sweet petit fours, a glaze (or icing) is most commonly used.
What are petit fours & what do they taste like?
Petit fours, also called petits fours or petits fours au Chocolat, are small almond- and hazelnut-filled chocolates that are served at the end of a meal as a dessert. They’re typically served with a dusting of powdered sugar over the top. There are four types of petit fours: Hazelnut: These are the classic petit fours, with a light, creamy filling.
Where did petit fours come from?
Petit fours are delicate little cakes that originated in France. Their name translates to “small oven” in English as petit fours were baked with the residual heat of brick ovens used for breadmaking in the past. The bakers would use the lower heat to make pastries, and thus their name was coined. Can I make this ahead of time?