When I was a kid, I remember my mom use to bring home these little boxes of mini cakes around Christmas time.They were cute, bite size and had little delicious layers. It wasn’t until I was older than I learned these were called Petit Fours which is French for “little oven” and translates to a small, square-cut, frosted and decorated piece of pound cake or sponge cake.
Aside from being cute, they are perfect for a quick dessert fix if you’re having company over or just want to have a kid size dessert one evening.
To really make things easy, you can start with a frozen Sara Lee pound cake right from the start, thus the “no bake” part of this dessert. I also began by trimming the crust from the top and sides so I could start with a nice rectangular block of pound cake.
Next you’ll want to slice the pound cake into even squares. They don’t have to be perfect, but it helps keep all of your petit fours the same size.
Of course I wanted to add a filling so I sliced each block into 1/4 inch layers.
Now for the filling. You could of course use whatever you’d like whether it be a buttercream, jam, jelly or even vanilla pudding with a hint of color like I used.
Simply spread your filling on top of the pound cake and continue to stack the layers about four slices high.
The fun part is giving the petit fours a beautiful and sweet glaze. Start by setting them on top of a cake rack that is placed over a baking pan to catch the run off.
For the recipe, I used Wilton’s poured fondant recipe which you simply pour over each little cake and let them dry.
You can also go ahead and add a little decoration at this point.
Chill and serve.
You are truly inspiring me to want to be in the kitchen Cat. I think that I’ve just been so burnout lately that I’ve let my food blog suffer immensely. But you, you are making me want to do more!
These are just lovely! I KNOW I could do this!
P.S. My mom loves this blog but she particularly loves the design and layout. She said, “it’s clean and beautiful”. 😉
Lori, I’m so happy to hear that and I do hope you get back in the kitchen because I absolutely love your recipes!
And tell you’re mom I said thank you!
New subscriber, just started looking around, but love everything I’ve read, can’t wait to try some of your recipes, ideas and tips. Thank you so much.
this seems so easy!!! i’ll definetly use it the next time i need a cute but easy dessert!!
Those are so gorgeous and cute Cat! What a fun idea. They would be fabulous for a bridal or baby shower. Or have fun with them for any holiday by altering the colors/nonpareils. Yummmmmmmm
Very clever, they look so cute!
I LOVE that you use pre-made pound cake! I don’t always have a lot of time but somehow always end up on the “dessert list” for everything we attend! Looks like I have found a new place to get recipes! I can’t wait to try this!
Shasta, these are definitely a time saver. I like the cheat and use premade on occasion too, especially when turning the oven on is torture.
They look so cool. I’ll have to try this 🙂
Wow! Love them!! I want to try this. You’re totally going to keep me from losing weight, you know that, right?
They look beautiful! I am so going to do these for Christmas to give as gifts…instead of buying the really expensive ones. 🙂
Rebecca, that’s an awesome idea. You could do the poured fondant in pretty Christmas colors too.
These are so cute..and easy to make!
I can’t believe I never thought of using the store bought pound cakes before. Would have made these a lot more often. I have to bake a sheet cake every time and it’s never completely even, thank you so very much. I’ll definitely be making some for Valentine’s Day gifts for my family.