Ghoulish Petits Fours and Witch Hats
By Martha Stewart
Originally published October 2008
IngredientsMakes about 40.
* White Sheet Cake
* Confectioners' Sugar Icing
* Butter Glaze
* 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, for eyes and mouth
Comment on the icing recipe:
A former professional cake decorator said: "If you are planning to make 40 petits fours, the 7 cups of icing is about right. you'd be surprised on how much you are going to need. Also, with the white, you may need to go back and do a second layer... trust me, you want more than enough, you don't want to stop dipping to make more icing!"
Directions
1. Using a 1 1/2-inch cookie cutter, cut out circles from cake. Brush off any crumbs with a pastry brush.
2. Fit a pastry bag with a plastic coupler, and top cake rounds with icing in a ghost or hat shape,about 1 inch high.
3. Place a wire rack over a rimmed baking sheet; set aside. Set an iced cake round on a fork; hold over bowl of glaze. Using a large spoon, drizzle glaze evenly over cake and icing until completely covered. Transfer to wire rack. Repeat with remaining rounds. Let set, about 5 minutes.
4. Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water; stir chocolate until melted. Transfer to a disposable pastry bag or resealable plastic bag; snip off tip with scissors. Pipe eyes and a mouth onto ghosts.
For witch hats, make petits fours through step two. Then create a brim using a dab of icing: Affix each petit four to a 2-to-2 1/2-inch chocolate wafer cookie. Proceed to step three, coating with Chocolate Glaze instead of Butter Glaze. In lieu of step four, wrap one or two pieces of licorice lace around the base of the hat immediately after glazing.