10 Fancy Petit Fours Recipes Fit For A Tea Party

Cranberry Vanilla Bean Petit Fours

Some weekends after binge-watching The Crown, I like going out and indulge in a fancy high tea—the only way to pretend to be a British Royal for an afternoon. While the crustless cucumber sandwiches and scones piled high with butter and jam are definitely nice, what I find most decadent and attractive are the small mini cakes (a.k.a. petit fours) that also come along in these tiered towers of goodies. Scroll through these 10 elegant petit fours recipes and see what I mean.

Drizzled with icing, stacked with luscious layers of cream in between, draped in fondant and sprinkled with crystals, when it comes to petit fours, more is most certainly more in terms of decorating them.

So, if you're also partial to high tea and want to recreate an epic one in the comfort of your own home, just make sure you include petit fours in your royals-inspired high tea menu. No idea how to get started? Consider this your cheat sheet to petit fours.

What Are Petit Fours?

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.

How to Make Petit Four Icing

To decorate sweet petit fours, a glaze (or icing) is most commonly used. The icing is often made with a base of confectioner's sugar, water, and some syrup that is heated over a double-boiler until smooth, before it's used to decorate the petit fours.

How to Make Petit Four Cakes

The simplest method of making petit four cakes is to bake cake batter in a large sheet pan and then once baked and cooked, the sheet cake is then cut into small bite-sized pieces, which are later stacked on top of each other with icing or filling in between.