Frosting for Petits Fours

The reason I didn't give this five stars is not because of the taste, they were really great once I got it right! I tried it five times! I made a recipe very similar to this one, only with a pound of confectioner's sugar and a tablespoon of butter at the end, rather than just one and a half cups of the powdered sugar. Here are my tips: if your icing is too thin, add more powdered sugar, and if it is too thick, add as much hot water as you need. I had to constantly water it as it thickened up very quickly. I used a piping bag to pour over the sides of the cake just to make sure they were covered before using a medium-sized spoon to pour icing over the top and get a nice, smooth surface. I was only happy with the way it covered the cake the last time I made it, it was not too thin and not too thick from the beginning, though I still had to add water from time to time. Maybe it had something to do with me doubling the recipe since I only did it that last time? I had enough to cover about thirty 2x2 petit fours, which is a great size, especially if they are layered. In any case, these were beautiful and got AMAZING reviews from the people at the wedding shower that I made them for. If you’re looking for an idea, I used Betty Crocker French Vanilla and Golden Vanilla cakes doctored with about a teaspoon of almond flavoring apiece. I also filled the middle with a buttercream icing that I had folded cherry preserves (run through the blender) into, as the shower was cherry-themed.

I ended up making 2 batches of this frosting (which I would actually label as an "icing", since it is so thin) because I figured one batch for 48 servings would be enough for 36 1.5" x 1.5" petit fours. The first batch was way too thick and I had to keep adding warm water to thin it out. When I ran out of the first batch, I made the second by substituting 1/2 Cup of unsweetened cocoa powder for the powdered sugar. It turned out just perfect: thin enough to drizzle but thick enough to give nice coverage. I tried two different methods for icing: by tube and by dipping -- both used a LOT of icing. The icing cooled down and thickened up too fast in the tube. Dipping was faster and easier, but very messy.

This icing is way too thick to use as is written. I used only 1 cup of confectioners sugar instead of the 1 1/2 cups and it was still too thick. There is no way I could pour this over the cakes and get the sides covered. I read the reviews that said dipping was easier but they didn't say what they used to dip the cakes with in order to get the sides covered.

This recipe was a thin runny mess. I had to take lots of step to attempt to thicken it and nothing worked. I've been cooking and baking for a while now and I've made similar frosting that turned out great, but this is just cheap powdered sugar icing. It would be better if made with milk as most powdering sugar based icings are, but it still has that cheap (meant for sugar cookies) flavor. Definitely not petit four grade icing.

This recipie simply did not work.

I did not care for this recipe. It tasted like pure powdered sugar.