Petite Four

A petit four (plural: petits fours) is a small cake generally eaten at the end of a meal or served as part of a large buffet.

An assortment of petits fours.Typically, petits fours are approximately 1 inch square and about 1.5 to 2 inches high and consist of layers of cake and butter cream frosting. All of this is covered with fondant, often pastel in color. Petits fours are commonly decorated with candy roses or other sugar embellishments. Petits fours however can refer to any number of small confections.

There are two different categories of petits fours. Petits fours secs (sec meaning “dry”) include a variety of small desserts, such as special dainty cookies, baked meringues, macaroons, and puff pastries.

Petits fours glacé (glacé meaning “iced”) are iced or decorated in some way, such as tiny cakes covered in fondant or frosting, small eclairs, and tartlets.

They were traditionally made during the cooldown process of brick ovens fired by coal fuel in the 18th century. Coal heat is hard to control as it burns so much hotter than wood, and at the time was much more expensive so waste of the heat generated was not an option.

The name “petit four” is French for “small oven”.