Piña Colada Petits Fours

This past week my husband Tom and I returned from our "babymoon" in the gorgeous Turks & Caicos Islands. We decided to celebrate the new year on the warm beach with a piña colada or two (rum-free for me, of course:) Our perfect vacation boasted copious amounts of fresh pineapple and coconut, and I couldn't seem to get enough. Sadly, all vacations must come to an end and here we are back in frigid NYC. Still craving that Caribbean flavor combo, I decided to make my own piña colada creation. I knew I wanted to make a piña colada cake, but because coconut can make things extra sweet, I decided petits fours would be the perfect tiny bite! If you're stuck with the winter blues, create these petits fours–The toasted coconut smell alone will take your taste buds to a warmer place (at a fraction of the cost!) 

Piña Colada Petits Fours
Makes about 30 petits fours

INGREDIENTS
For the Cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
3 tablespoons dark rum
1/3 cup chopped or crushed pineapple
1/3 cup coconut flakes

For the Glaze
6 cups sifted confectioners sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup dark rum
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
Toasted coconut flakes for garnish

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x13" baking pan with parchment paper and set aside. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in 2 additions, alternating with the coconut milk. Add the rum, coconut flakes and pineapple and mix on high until batter is fully incorporated, about 10 seconds. Pour batter into baking pan and bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. While the cake cools completely, make the glaze.

2. Combine sugar, water, rum and corn syrup in a saucepan and cook over low heat until well-mixed, about 5-8 minutes. Set aside.

3. Remove cooled cake from the pan and use a 1.5" circle cutter to cut petits fours (or just cut squares with a sharp knife). Use a spoon to coat the sides of the petits fours with the glaze, then drizzle the glaze over the top of the cake and garnish with toasted coconut flakes. Let petits fours set for a half an hour before serving.

Brighten up your Kitchen with Color Swatches

I work with Pantone swatches on a daily basis. They are integral to graphic designers, printers and interior decorators alike. Yet how could it be that I have no use them in the kitchen! In an effort to try and bring my two worlds a little closer, a brainstorm ensued for ways to incorporate my love of Pantone into the kitchen. It seems to me that the closest equivalent to a tool such as a Pantone swatch book in the kitchen would be measuring spoons, so I decided to give my spoons a color makeover. 

I decided to go with a cheery green palette for my measuring spoons. To re-create the Pantone colors, I had to mix acrylic paints in green, white and black. Painters tape helps keep clean lines and prevents the paint from getting near the spoons.

These colorful measuring spoons had to be put to use, so I made matching Pantone Petits Fours. These bite-size iced cakes are commonly flavored with Marzipan and the layers filled with fruit preserves. Petit fours is actually a French word, meaning small oven. Seems fitting considering I'm making them in a NYC oven. (which is basically one step up from an Easy Bake oven)

Petit fours were the perfect excuse for me to bring Pantone colors into baking. For mine, I baked a simple yellow cake, trimmed the edges and sliced it into two layers. Then I pureed some raspberry preserves and spread it in between the layers of cake. Finally, I cut the cake into one inch squares and chilled them for a few hours to make them firm enough to coat.

Now, it's time to decorate these suckers.

White chocolate icing 

INGREDIENTS

1 cup white chocolate 

1 pound confectioners' sugar

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1/4 cup hot water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Place the white chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water and stir until evenly melted. 

2. In another bowl, mix the confectioners' sugar, light corn syrup, hot water and vanilla. 

3. Stir in sugar mixture to the melted white chocolate and mix until smooth and icing easily pours off the spatula. Turn down the heat to the lowest setting to keep icing warm.

4. Place a petit four on a fork and, holding it over the bowl, use a spoon to gently pour icing over the cake. Once it's coated, place the petit four on a wire rack to set. It's best to have a lined baking sheet under the rack to catch the extra icing that drips of the cake. 

5. Decorate any way you like! I recommend piping tinted icing or adding some bling with dragees. 

I colored rolled fondant to achieve the Pantone green I wanted. Once the color was perfectly tinted, I rolled the fondant out very thin, cut a square and used a little water to adhere it to the petit fours. 

The final step was to number the petit four "swatches" with an edible ink black marker. 

So maybe it is a stretch to try and unite a couple of my favorite things, but even if Pantone doesn't really have a place in the kitchen, at least it inspired some colorful treats!