I Hate Petits Fours. Anyone Else? I'm In Trouble Right Now..
Decorating By JCE62108 Updated 17 Apr 2010 , 2:36pm by JCE62108
Ive attempted this probably 7 or 8 times now. Its just not working for me.
These happen to be brownies that are due at 12pm TOMORROW. Ugh. 
I baked a 5x10 pan of brownies, split and filled with dark ganache frosted smooth on top with dark ganache, then put in the freezer to harden. Took them out, cut in perfect 1" squares, put in freezer again. This time, about 30-40 minutes to get them pretty cold and firm.
I heated my ganache to a nice lukewarm 80 degrees, and poured them. It ran right off them. The brownie showed all the way through. I waited for the ganache to cool a bit more and tried pouring again. It poured thicker, but didnt cover any better. It showed all the imperfections on the sides. So I covered a few anyway, let them set, them tried going back with a second coat. It still didnt cover everything and turned out horribly sloppy looking.
I have read, and read, and read about making petits fours. I have looked up techniques and different icings, and different cake recipes. I have tried dipping them (gets crumbs ALL in the icing), pouring them, and smoothing it on with a spatula. It seems no matter WHAT I do , they all turn out looking EXACTLY like these just did.
I didnt want to finish them because I wanted some advice from you guys. These are for a wedding. It has to look smooth and elegant. What am I doing wrong and can you help me.....PLEASE?
EDIT: I just saw a photo of a white layer cake that was attached to my post. That is not my photo and I have no clue how it got there. lol.
I have had the best luck when I actually "spoon" the fondant over them. I have never used ganache though. I only have used pourable fondant - keeping it at the correct temperature is important, but it sounds like you are doing that. Can you try doing a 2nd coat and see how it goes?
Some folks have better luck with candy melts as the coating.....you can do that in a pinch too.
I feel your pain, I HATE doing those little buggars.
BTW there is another thread with a caramel problem if you think you may be able to help me, Im getting kind of desperate right now. Its 6pm and Im having all sorts of issues with this order. I could really use some help.
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopicp-6784497.html#6784497
Thank you Loucinda. That is what I was doing. I had the squares on the parchment and was spooning it over the top in a circular motion to get all the sides. I cover cakes with ganache all the time and it always looks flawless. These arent iced so I guess its a little different. I never have to do a second coat with cakes either.
I have tried several petits fours icing recipes and they always turn out the same....crumbs in the icing, lumpy looking, and slopy. Even if they are frozen. 
This might not help any but I saw on parents for valentines day they made petit fours and used canned frosting. They heated until it was liquidy (i think it said 30 seconds) and poured it right on top with no problem. I am sure they have the exact instructions on their website. HTH.
This is my dad doing a step by step how to on petit fours. We do about 1500 petit fours a week. Hope this helps.
:0) I hope your luck changes, and everything goes smoothly(pun intended 
Jodi
I have never used ganache but I'm sure the principle is still the same. If it is running right off it is probably too thin and you may want to sonsider thickening it. I use a piping bag and go around edges to hit all the corners and then a little burst over the top that sort of waterfalls down to finish with a nice smooth edge. I feel your pain and wish you luck.
Thanks guys. Im about to go at it again. I think Im going to tackle that first, then the caramel. If the brownies dont work and get ruined, I may have to run out and get more white chocolate. I used more than I thought I would for the ganache. Jennifer, I would absolutly love to see that video, but I cant look at it now so it wont help me. I have dial-up (nothing else is available where I live) and there is no way I can watch videos. My computer freaks out and my internet seizes up. And if by some miracle it DOES load the video, Ill be waiting for hours to see it. I hate dialup. lol.
i really really wish I could see that video............is it available anywhere besides youtube?? Youtube is blocked from my router (kids have a pc and we don't want them just watching any ol' video they happen upon)
I will see if Tobias can put it on my facebook page. I will post if he can get it there.
This is my dad doing a step by step how to on petit fours. We do about 1500 petit fours a week. Hope this helps.
So that is where I saw your dad. I saw this video a while back and when I saw him at Ultimate Cake Off, I had a feeling I saw him somewhere before.
These are not going well. Ill post photos when done. Its 9:30pm and Im still working. I think Im going to take a break and go get a pizza. I have not eaten today and Ive still got a few hours of work ahead of me. To make matters worse, I had an crazy challenging cake that I was working on last two days. Between last night and the night before, I got a total of 7 hours sleep. Im exhausted. If I finish by 12am I should get a decent sleep tonight. Vacation really put me behind. Ugh...so tired....hate......petit fours...... need pizza. mmmm........
Sounds like you are down to the wire. I would go with the suggestion from Parents magazine as suggested by another poster. If you put the can of frosting in the microwave until pourable and dip the brownies, the come out beautifully. They set pretty quickly, as well. I did this with the kids one day and, as much as I hate canned frosting, they looked great. The taste is no worse than candy melts and you could add some vanilla to help with the flavor.
Best of luck! 
The best I could do. 
I even put 3 coats on some of them, and as you can see, the brownie still showed through. The ganache was not to thin. I pour it on frosted cakes all the time and have no problem. This has just been insanely difficult for me. I Greatly admire those of you who make those beautiful little gems so perfect and flawless. All the reading in the world probably isnt enough. I may need someone to actually demonstrate this to me in person, and watch me do it so they can tell me what Im doing wrong. Too bad I could never go to pastry school. If I had a good internet connection I would love to watch that video.
I think the lumpyness came from the sides drying fast, and the top still flowing down the sides, making horizontal drips. Weird. I dont know how to avoid that.
I think Im going to take all this off my site. I see all these wonderful things on this site and think, WOW I can do that! So I put truffles, cake balls, covered brownies, and other stuff on my website. Stupid. Knowing how to do something and actually pulling it off arent the same thing. I think Ill stick to cakes. I hate to sound so sad, but I am seriously bummed about this. Just dissapointed. I know Im capable of better things. Now I have to show up tomorrow and hope I can run out of there before she opens the box.
This isnt the only thing that went wrong. She also changed a flavor of one of her candies last minute. She wanted a chocolate with blueberry filling. All I had on hand was a sample of blueberry swirl from amoretti. So I called and asked if it could be used as a chocolate filling. She said "Yeah! People do it all the time! Its really good that way." I dont think she knew what she was talking about, because I used it in the chocolates, and the swirl is reacting with the chocolate and literally eating away at it from the inside out. The outside of the chocolate is dull and slightly mushy on the sides where some of the fillings is starting to eat through. So now I dont have that for her.
I just have to make some caramels for her and Im off to bed. It's 12am, delivery at 12pm. Hope I can get some decent sleep tonight.
Don't be so hard on yourself....the 2nd picture, the items look lovely!! Once you set those petit fours into a wrapper, those sides won't show. Get a good nights sleep, and look at them with fresh eyes and outlook in the morning. And remember, WE are our own worst critics.
Jennifer Im going to see if that video will load while Im sleeping tonight. lol. Do you seriously do that many petits fours or are you joking? That's absolutly insane. I bet they look so gorgeous though. Do you have special equiptment to make them with? If you do so many I would think there might be an system out there for that....like, maybe a donut froster type thing. I used to watch the ladies glaze the donuts and wish I had that in my house for petit fours. I always thought that would be an awesome way to do it.
Wow....Just watched that video. I just need a giant vat of icing! Ive been to stingy. lol. He sure was squooshing that icing in his hands a lot! lol. That was great though, thank you for posting it.
Do you guys ever fill your petit fours? It looks like it was only square pieces of cake with no filling, if Im not mistaken. If you do fill them, is it pretty much the same precess? I always figured they would cover much nicer if they werent filled, but then again I thought that was traditional to have fruit fillings and that sort of thing in them.
Thanks again!
2:10am, will be going to bed shortly. What a day!!!! That bed is gonna feel soooooo nice.
I think your petit fours look great. From my understanding, you're supposed to see the layers through the icing on the sides of petit fours. Those little wedding cake candies look awesome too. Don't beat yourself up! I hope you get some sleep tonight.
Wow....Just watched that video. I just need a giant vat of icing! Ive been to stingy. lol. He sure was squooshing that icing in his hands a lot! lol. That was great though, thank you for posting it.
Do you guys ever fill your petit fours? It looks like it was only square pieces of cake with no filling, if Im not mistaken. If you do fill them, is it pretty much the same precess? I always figured they would cover much nicer if they werent filled, but then again I thought that was traditional to have fruit fillings and that sort of thing in them.
Thanks again!
2:10am, will be going to bed shortly. What a day!!!! That bed is gonna feel soooooo nice.
Normally you don't squoosh it like that, but when you are doing a how to video, you have to make sure the point gets across. Yes, we do that many on a regualar week, holidays are busier. We do make filled ones, but the plain ones are the ones that sell better by us. Traditionally if you make them with filling, the filling should show through, but not the cake. If you ever get a chance and you are in central Louisian, stop by and i'll wak you through how we do them.
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