Oh Boy Do I Have A Mess! Please Help!
Decorating By cakelovincrazy Updated 24 Jul 2009 , 2:06pm by flourpowerMN
I believe I am way in over my head. What I thought would be a very easy project has turned into a huge mess! 
I am trying to make mini cake bites in the shape of dice for my bunco game tonight and it's turning out terribly!
I made a 9x13 lemon cake yesterday and froze it (following some pointers on here to help keep the cake moist you freeze it immediately after getting it out of the oven and over night).
So this morning I torte it and fill with a very thin layer of raspberry mousse, put it back in the freezer for a few minutes.
Took it out and started cutting it up in cubes. I melted the candy melts and added 1tbsp of shortening and pured over a couple of the dice and it just sat on the top. I heated the melts some more and added a little more shortening, it still didn't pour nicely over the dice.
I got so frustrated and decided to forget the dice shape and just make balls, so I mixed the rest of my raspberry mousse with the cake and started to make the balls then decided to try to shape some dice to see how that would work.
I put a few back in the freezer to test, put more candy melts over them (boy does it take A LOT) for one shape, then put back in the freezer to harden.
After it hardened it still doesn't look very nice, but the actual cake part seems very gooey. Is that normal? Did I put too much of the mousse in it?
So now even if I do get the dice shaped right and the candy melts poured over them nicely I'm worried that the actual cake bite part isn't correct. I am soooo frustrated and don't know what to do with this mess of goo now.
Any suggestions?
I wouldn't have poured a hot mixture over a frozen cake. and taking it in and out of the freezer is likely part of the problem. to be honest, if you baked it yesterday, i don't think you needed to freeze it if you were covering today. I wouldhave recommended you bake and torte and put a thin layer of icing on it, then pop into the fridge overnight. take it out for a bit, then pour the melted coating over i if that is the topping you wanted. I think regular icing would have worked very well too.
It's probably alright, but it takes very little mouse, icing, creamer, or whatever you want to use to make the balls stick together. I actually hate a gooey texture, but some may like it.
I have only dipped in the chocolate and never poured over a shape. So I don't have any suggestions there.
The cake bite texture is NOT supposed to be gooey? Is it supposed to more crumbly like a cake? I guess I could bake another cake and add to the mixture, but not sure I have time for that now.
If I had the texture right then I should have dipped the balls into the candy melts and NOT poured it over them?
Ooohhhh I'm so frustrated I've totally ruined this and have no idea what to make now. Should I even keep the cake mixture and try to add another cake to make the texture right? I hate that I've just wasted all these ingredients and money just to have ruined it all.
The cake bite texture is NOT supposed to be gooey? Is it supposed to more crumbly like a cake? I guess I could bake another cake and add to the mixture, but not sure I have time for that now.
If I had the texture right then I should have dipped the balls into the candy melts and NOT poured it over them?
Ooohhhh I'm so frustrated
I've totally ruined this and have no idea what to make now. Should I even keep the cake mixture and try to add another cake to make the texture right? I hate that I've just wasted all these ingredients and money just to have ruined it all.
I would taste one and see what you think. I made some once and loved them and a friend ordered them for a shower. I added too much icing to those and they were very gooey. I really felt bad charging for them, but no one ever complained. But I dipped the gooey ones too!
cakelovincrazy, I know just what you mean! I was making petit fours for a special client and I couldn't pour the icing or melted candy melts over the cake cubes either. I ended up freezing the cake cubes, then stabbing them with a skewer and dipping them in the melted candy melts.
I thought they looked like crap, but my client (who works for an attorney firm that buys my cakes a lot!) called me and said everyone loved them and she ran out of my cards because everyone was wanting to know where she got them. 
Go figure!
So I'm asking, too: How do you pour ANY kind of icing/melted candy over cake cubes and get it to flow down over the sides in a nice even sheet of covering? What am I doing wrong?
I thought they looked like crap, but my client (who works for an attorney firm that buys my cakes a lot!) called me and said everyone loved them and she ran out of my cards because everyone was wanting to know where she got them.
Go figure!
while the visual is important...
in food...
TASTE trumps LOOKS every time.
This really helped me the first time that I made petit fours, there are some good techniques that he has.
Also, chocolate by itself is awfully thick to be really pourable and have that right kind of flow to cover a cube. You have to thin the chocolate out with some heavy cream. Heat up the cream and thin your chocolate out some until it is the same consistancy as the liquid fondant that he has in the film.
This makes it more fluid so that it pours easier, without messing up your fat content and making the chocolate seize.
That's a great video. I'm glad I turned down a recent request for these!! 
Seems like a lot of work - are petit fours usually filled?
There is a poured fondant recipe with confectionary coating (I used Wilton candy disks in different colors) in the recipe section on this site. It works perfectly! I bake thin layers of pound cake in sheet pans and when cool (will be sticky)...1. spread seedless jam (I did not even dilute it) on the bottom layer...2. place next cake on that and spread jam again (very thin amts of jam)... 3. put cake 3 on top of that...4. let cake dry a bit and then cover with parchment, weigh down evenly with sheet cake pans and cans of veggies.
When I am satisfied with the height I remove all the stuff from the top, cut into interesting shapes then dip in simple syrup (flavor sparingly) and let dry. This is where the poured fondant comes in....with this recipe I only had to coat one time. It dried evenly and was really delish. Sorry so long...this was my 3rd attempt with petits fours and wanted to pass my info on!
Okay I would normally not comment on it but what is with using his hands for anything?
I was thinking the same thing. 
Unfortunately, I saw the video too late and didn't have time to fix my cake bites.
However, in the process I did come up with a mixture that "poured" very nicely. I used 100% chocolate and mixed with my left over candy melts. The candy melts gave the BITTER chocolate just enough sweet and the bites looked perfect and very shiney and smooth. However, the cake bite itself was way to gooey, so I scrapped them.
He had 2-3 tips that I will try....the "rolling" off of sticky surface is one that I really needed.
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