In Chapter 23, The Tea Party, the food Annaliese serves is described this way: “A three-tier silver serving dish held dainty petit fours and finger sandwiches cut into hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades. Devonshire cream, lemon curd, and rosy-red jam accompanied a basket of freshly baked currant scones.”

Yum.

What are petit fours? They are small, square cakes, sometimes frosted on all sides, sometimes only on the top so you can see the layers of cake inside, just right for a scrumptious tea party.

Here’s a step-by-step photographic recipe for making petit fours from Rose Bakes.

If you’d like to follow along with video instructions, then here’s a how-to from Martha Stewart.

Will this inspire you to make your own petit fours? Send me a photo in the comments!

This version is based on a recipe for “Gooseberry Jam” from the old (1965 edition) Fanny Farmer Cookbook. When we first made this, we didn’t have the “red currant juice” it called for, so I pureed some fresh strawberries in a blender instead. We also didn’t use weight measures (pounds) as the recipe called for, but volume measures (cups) instead.

We grow the gooseberries in our back yard. One robust bush yields an enormous amount of gooseberries. When they’re ripe, the lines on them get a purplish tinge, and when they’re really ripe the whole berry can be a deep purple. You might find gooseberries at a roadside stand or farmers’ market.

Gooseberry Jam (photo: Olga Volodina | 123rf.com)

a jar of our Gooseberry Strawberry Jam

Boil together for 5 minutes:
    4 cups of sugar
    1 quart (4 cups) of strawberries, washed and pureed

Add:
    8 cups of ripe gooseberries, washed

Boil 40 minutes, skimming as necessary. Set aside, covered, for 24 hours. 

Drain off the syrup into a separate pot. Pack the berries into jars that have been boiled. Boil the syrup until almost as thick as honey and pour it over the berries in the jars. Put on the lids and cover tightly. Store as you would any jam.