Petite Treats: Your Favorite Desserts—Bite Size!

I’m not exactly sure why, but everyone loves anything that’s “mini”! Great desserts like cupcakes, cake pops, bite sized cookies, petit fours. Maybe it’s because you feel like you can try more that way, or you convince yourself it has less calories 😉 Or maybe it’s just because they are so cute! But whatever the reason, petite treats are generally a hit!

Petite Treats is a great recipe book to get you on your way to making smaller versions of enjoyable desserts. Your inner sweet tooth is going to go crazy over it.

From the authors of “Mini Pies” and founders of the Seattle-based Mini Empire Bakery, “Petite Treats” shows you how to miniaturize everything from tiny fruit scones and mini pies to bite-size brownies and cutesy cannoli.”

The recipes are for the most part easy to follow, some of the them are simple with basic ingredients, others are a bit more fancy and you find yourself slightly challenged if you are usually a ‘cake mix’ kind of baker (like me!).

My favorite approach to using a book like this is to take the recipe, alter it a bit, maybe combine it with another and get something out of it that is close enough to the original that you give the book credit, but maybe took the inspirations of the recipes and perhaps used a shortcut or two to get you to that place.

By far my favorite recipe in this book has been the Cookies ‘N’ Cream Cake. I made some mini cakes for an evening where we had guests, and it was praised over and over again. Because I was short on time, I actually did use a vanilla cake mix but added the 3 crushed Oreo cookies per the recipe to the batter.

Then I baked it in a jelly roll pan, and used a lid to cut out twelve mini rounds from the prepared cake. This part I actually got from the Carrot Cake recipe in the Petite Treats book.

Then I made the

OREO BUTTERCREAM:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 Oreos, crushed to fine crumbs

In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugar, and salt on medium speed. After it’s combined, beat for 3 more minutes.
With the mixer running, add the whipping cream and vanilla. Beat for 1 minute.
Reduce the speed to low. Add the cookie crumbs and beat until combined.
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Then it was time to assemble the cakes. I actually had to freeze my mini cakes for a while because they were too moist to spread the buttercream on.

Much like when you ice a large 2 layer cake, you just place a dollop of frosting on one of the layers and spread it evenly, and then place another layer on top. Then frost the entire mini cake with the Oreo buttercream.

Just before serving garnish it with a dollop of whipping cream and a mini Oreo.

These were SO good that my family was literally duking it out for the one leftover mini cake we had. This will be my go to frosting for everything now.

This recipe collection offers you tons of ideas for ‘miniaturizing’ the next desserts you make. They are perfect for holiday feasts, with so many choices. The photographs in the book are wonderful, and you’ll be wanting to throw a dessert gala just to whip up the recipes.

Petite Treats: Adorably Delicious Versions of All Your Favorites from Scones, Donuts, and Cupcakes to Brownies, Cakes, and Pies by Morgan Greenseth and Christy Beaver will be available to purchase December 11th, and it’s available for pre-order for $14.95 on Amazon.com.

I received an e-copy of this title prior to its release to assist in this review. If you click a link in this post, land on Amazon.com and buy something, chances are I’ve made some money, so thank you, thank you very much.

Published by: Tammy Litke.