Valentine Petit Fours

The Art.
    When I was in elementary school, everyone loved Valentine's Day. Each student brought little  valentines for their classmates, and we all consumed an obnoxious amount of chocolate. However, as I've grown into adulthood (or an approximation thereof) many of my peers view Valentine's Day with embitterment and disdain. They focus so much on the romantic aspects that I think they forget that it's still a day to show your friends that you love them. I am proud to say that I have always taken the elementary school approach to Valentine's Day, distributing homemade valentines to show my friends that I care. This year I've taken it up a notch, and my gifts will include snacks as well as gaudy paper hearts. One of the treats will be these petit fours, decorated like little conversation heart candies. I hope that by giving valentines to all my friends, they will know that I love and appreciate them--because that's what Valentine's Day is all about!

The Science.
    In keeping with the Valentine theme, these petit fours are flavored with raspberry jam. Coincidentally, raspberries are reported to be good for your heart. A recent study tracked 94 thousand healthy women over the course of 18 years, and investigated how dietary habits affected risk for heart attack. They found that women who regularly consumed berries high in anthocyanin--the pigment that gives berries their color--had fewer heart attacks [1]. Cell culture experiments have also shown that anthocyanins have antioxidant effects and inhibit generation of nitric oxide, providing insight as to how berries may prevent cardiac events [2,3]. So, if you're wondering what to get your Valentine this year, making these petit fours will show you care about his/her cardiac health and want to spend a long, healthy life together. (Nevermind all the butter and sugar. It's irrelevant.)

The Recipe.

Raspberry Petit Fours: (Makes 45-50)
1 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons salted butter
3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam



    Preheat oven to 350^oF. Coat a 9x13 pan with cooking spray and line with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat butter in large bowl on medium-high until fluffy, then gradually beat in sugar. Beat eggs in, one at a time. Stir vanilla into buttermilk. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to butter/sugar/egg mixture while beating on low speed.  Beat an additional 30 seconds. Pour batter into mold/pan and spread evenly. Lift and drop on the counter a couple times to eliminate bubbles in the batter. Bake on center rack for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes, remove the parchment paper, then place on wire rack until completely cool.
   Using a small heart cookie cutter, cut petit fours out of the cake. In a microwave safe bowl, gently heat the jam until it is runny. Brush jam over cooled cakes and allow to dry. Meanwhile, make the poured fondant.

White Chocolate Poured Fondant:
4oz Ghirardelli white bar chocolate
6 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup

    Heat chocolate in a large microwave-safe bowl in 30-second bursts, stirring inbetween, until melted. Stir in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, adding small amounts of water at intervals. Stir in corn syrup. Icing will be very thick. Divide into bowls and tint the icing pastel shades with gel icing colors.

Decorating:
    Balance a cake on a fork and hold it over the bowl of fondant. Spoon fondant over the cake, allowing the excess to drip off. Allow to dry completely on a wire rack, with parchment paper underneath to catch drips. Write conversation heart messages with red royal icing and a #2 tip. Petit fours can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for up to one month.

1. Cassidy, A. et al. "High Anthocyanin Intake Is Associated With a Reduced Risk of Myocardial Infarction in Young and Middle-Aged Women." Circulation. 2013; 127: 188-196 
2. Min, S. et al. "Anti-inflammatory effects of black rice, cyanidin-3-O-beta-D-glycoside, and its metabolites, cyanidin and protocatechuic acid. Int Immunopharmacol." Int Immunopharmacol. 2010, 10(8) pp 959-66.
3. Pergola, C. et al. "Inhibition of nitric oxide biosynthesis by anthocyanin fraction of blackberry extract." Nitric Oxide 2006, 15(1): pp 30–39