In my opinion, ferns are a highly underrated plant to have growing in your yard come spring. Not only do they have a lovely fluffiness about them, but they also emit one of the most vivacious green glows of the season, especially in sunlight. Ferns also have a level of detail that makes them extremely appealing to someone who is often more than slightly masochistic in the intricacy of the baking decorations she takes on.

“A plant so detailed as to be a naturally occurring example of fractals? By all means, let us try and replicate it in buttercream!”

It started innocently enough; my friend Janita had commissioned me to bake a cake celebrating her graduation from Bryn Mawr College (Congrats, Janita!) and I decided to do a test run of the recipe she requested in cupcake form before making the cake itself. Not one to waste an opportunity for decorating, I jumped in with my green food coloring and the smallest icing tips I could find to try my hand at frosting ferns.

The cupcakes turned out really well (as did the recipe in question and eventually Janita’s cake), and since I try not to duplicate decorating themes in the interest of trying new things, I thought I was done with ferns. But.

But then along came the President’s Tea.

Some quick background: my family has belonged to a small summer swim club for as long as I can remember. It’s unlike any other club I’ve heard of in that it has no snack bar, no swim lanes, and (perhaps its most viscerally memorable trait) no heated water in the pool itself. What it does have is a large pond complete with rowboats, wide lawns perfect for games of capture the flag, and picnic tables for summer barbecues. It also hosts an entirely volunteer-run fireworks show every Fourth of July (of which pyrotechnic team I’ve been a proud member for the last couple of years), but more on that and the dessert associated with it later.

Every June the club hosts a President’s Tea to celebrate the beginning of the summer season. When my mom asked me if I would contribute a dessert, I knew I wanted to make petit fours: small, bite-sized cakes covered in a fondant glaze that would be perfect for an afternoon tea. When decorated with the same fern motif as my cupcakes, the petit fours would capture the atmosphere of the event; sophisticated, but with a touch of the natural setting that gives the club its charm. (Admittedly, a significant part of my decision was just to see if I could pull off buttercream ferns on an even smaller surface area than cupcakes.)

…And I could! Each petit four turned out as a (roughly) 1.5″ cube, made of 2 layers of pound cake separated by a layer of vanilla buttercream, then covered with fondant glaze and decorated with a piped-on buttercream fern. I meant to include a cross-section photo of one of the cakes to show off its tiny layers, but true to form I ate my test petit-four before I thought to take a picture. Hopefully I’ll learn impulse control in time for future posts.

While I wasn’t at the beginning of the tea, I’m told that the petit-fours disappeared quickly, which is always the best outcome a baker can hope for. They were certainly gone by the time I arrived, so it’s a good thing I got to taste-test one before they left the house! This project involved a ton of recipes, took a long time to make, and was messy to boot (my kitchen was covered in blobs of light green frosting and glaze for what seemed like days), but I’ll definitely keep petit fours in my arsenal of recipes; I can imagine them making a great birthday or hostess gift, and they can be decorated with any design for any occasion.

…But maybe it’s time to take a break from ferns.

 Recipes:

Pound Cake: I used Martha Stewart’s Vanilla Pound Cake for the cake portion of the petit fours. You’ll notice I use a lot of her recipes in my baking: not only are they usually written clearly and include steps that are important but easy to forget (rotating cakes in the oven halfway through baking, for example) but they also rarely disappoint in the taste department!

Vanilla Buttercream: I’m still on the search for the perfect vanilla buttercream (most taste either too buttery or too sugary to me), but this Vanilla Frosting from Real Simple hits a pretty good balance for a basic, go-to buttercream. The recipe comes from an article titled “The Only Cake Story You’ll Ever Need” that was featured in the May 2011 issue of the magazine; it includes basic cake and frosting recipes and simple decorating ideas, and I highly recommend it to anyone who’s looking to bake a cake and wants all the necessary recipes in one place!

*That being said, I’m not sure I would use buttercream between the pound cake layers the next time I make petit fours; since the fondant glaze has to be warm when poured over the pound cake and buttercream melts easily, it made for a slightly nerve-wracking, contradictory assembly process. Using jam, or simply no filling at all, might make things easier.

Fondant Glaze: I was new to this part of the project, and did a fair amount of research online for the best glaze recipe; the winner seemed to be this Poured Fondant, originally created by Helen Fletcher and featured on the blog VeganYumYum. While I used a slightly different method (and no marzipan or jam) to create my petit fours, VeganYumYum also offers a good tutorial on the process from start to finish, for anyone who wants more detailed instructions.