Petits fours with lemon cream

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 300 g flour
• 300 g sugar
• 6 eggs
• 300 g butter or margarine
• 1 lemon(s), juice and zest
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 200 ml whole milk
• 3 egg yolks
• 30 g sugar
• 10 g flour
• 10 g cornstarch
• 125 g butter, soft
• 1 tbsp powdered sugar
• 1 jar jam, to taste
• 1 pack of fondant
• n. B. sugar decoration, icing

Instructions

Working time approx. 2 hours; Rest time approx. 2 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 40 minutes; Total time approx. 4 hours 40 minutes

makes 40 pieces

Makes 40 petits fours. Preheat oven to 175°C (top/bottom heat). For the base (lemon cake), cream the margarine or butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the eggs one at a time and beat. Add the lemon zest and juice (about 2-3 tbsp). I really like a lemony taste, so I also add a few squeezes from the lemon juice bottle and, if I have any, a bit of lemon flavoring. Then mix the flour and baking powder, sift into the batter, and mix. Divide the batter between two baking sheets and bake one after the other at 175°C (top/bottom heat) on the middle rack for about 10-12 minutes. This batter won’t rise much in the oven and will stay relatively flat. After baking, let the cake cool. For the filling, mix the egg yolks with the flour, cornstarch, and a little of the milk. Bring the rest of the milk and sugar to a boil in a saucepan. Slowly add the boiled sugar milk to the beaten egg and flour mixture, whisking vigorously until all the milk is incorporated. Then pour this mixture back into the saucepan and bring to a boil while stirring constantly. When the mixture has thickened to a creamy consistency, stir constantly and let it cool in the refrigerator. After cooling in the refrigerator, I stirred in a little lemon flavoring. Now beat the butter with the powdered sugar on high and add the cooled cream. The lemon buttercream is ready. If the base is still too thick, you can divide it into smaller pieces. Be careful, the more you divide the cake, the more filling (buttercream or jam) you will need. A thin piece of string, for example, can be used to divide the cake. I divided the first sheet lengthwise and then divided the cake again into two layers using string, creating four layers. The second tray was thinner, so I only divided the dough once. In total, my Petit Fous had 6 layers. I spread lemon curd and jam on them alternately and stacked them on top of each other. Tips: – Divide the dough on a piece of baking paper so that you can then fold the thin layers of dough over using the paper. If you try to lift the layers of dough, they could crack and break if they are very thin. You can also use the paper to fold the layers of dough further and further onto the already layered cake mountain. Now go the fondant sheet. Glue this to the dough with jam or buttercream; icing is also suitable for this. – First, knead the fondant with your hands until it is soft and then sprinkle your work surface with powdered sugar. When you roll out the fondant thinly, keep using powdered sugar on your rolling pin or whatever you are using to roll it out so that the fondant doesn’t stick and crack. Of course, this also works with marzipan instead of fondant. The layered cake mountain is then refrigerated for an hour so the buttercream can set and give everything more stability. One cake will become many small cakes. After the cooling time, level the edges of the layered cake and cut into equal-sized pieces. Now these cubes can be decorated to your heart’s content. I highly recommend using a kitchen rack with aluminum foil underneath. Decorating tips: You can, for example, cover the cakes with icing. To do this, sift icing sugar and add a few drops of warm lemon juice. Be careful not to use too much lemon juice at once, but add it gradually. If the icing is too thin, it won’t dry well; add a little more icing sugar until it forms a thick mixture. If you want to use sugar pearls or other dry decorations, mix an icing as glue. You can also decorate the treats with fondant or marzipan, but in this case, wait until the surface has dried out. Of course, there are no limits to your imagination.