Big thank you to Sabon for making this recipe possible!
When you think of holiday indulgences, you might think of guilty pleasures: like dessert. And then there’re holiday scents and fragrances and recipes to wow family and friends. How about immersing yourself completely in the fragrances and aromas of Sabon’s luxury bath and body indulgences while enjoying the perfect flavors in a mini-cake dessert with decadent icings to match those holiday scents. This is a holiday taste and fragrance experience! Add time to relax, feel pampered, enjoy luxurious bath and body skin care, and you will be the holiday party hostess ready for the party to begin.
Beyond indulging for your own immersion into the holidays, this petit four recipe and matching Sabon scent collection will also let you celebrate at a friend’s house. Bring the perfect, memorable hostess gift–a Sabon gift set and matching petit four flavors.. You will be giving your hostess something to share and something for relaxing after the hustle and bustle of the season’s activities.
Sometimes it’s difficult to present holiday hostess gifts to elevate to that “extra special” gift. When they open this gift, they will know you put a lot of thought into making them feel special. Let me tell you, these Petit Fours are delicious! Made as a sheet cake in a sheet pan, then put on a cooling rack, you will cut these cakes into delicate little desserts. They stay perfect at room temperature, need no super sweet confectioner’s sugar icings, food coloring (unless you choose black as one of the colors like I did!) or high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils of commercial cakes or icing recipes (because we’re creating a more delicate flavor with Italian Buttercream and cream cheese!). And there’s no worry in overeating gobs of cake and icing because these dessert treats are cut cake that are just the right size. Best of all, when I matched the flavors of these little pound cakes, with Sabon’s new holiday scent collection: Shiny Spice, this became the perfect gifting package I was aiming for. These gifts takes holiday party pleasures to a new level of sweet memories and delicious aromas and fragrances. What could be more special than that?
Sabon’s Shiny Spice scents are amazing: vanilla, lemon zest, cinnamon, white flowers, rose, sandalwood, and musk with petit fours of three mini cakes frosted with an incredible Italian buttercream, are the holiday match for your home and your friends’ holiday celebrations:
Vanilla Bombe Alaska
Vanilla is one of my favorite flavors. It’s simple, everyone likes it, and in this recipe it brings out the flavor of pound cake beautifully. That said, I wanted to pump up the volume. Rather than coating this vanilla delicacy in fondant or royal icing, I decided to cover it in Italian buttercream, sugar and dark rum, then torch the top for a nicely toasted flambé. When torched, the meringue Italian buttercream turns into a delicious marshmallowy shell–perfect for the holidays and super impressive to look at.
Lemon Zest
If you’ve never had cream cheese frosting with lemon, it’s time to enter into that heavenly experience during the upcoming holidays! This flavor was the clear winner for my husband and I’ve been watching it disappear at nano speed at our house. Not sure if they’d last till the holidays if I made more. Made with cream cheese buttercream, lemon zest, and lemon curd, and coated with a white fondant, this one is simple elegance and also a top note scent in Sabon’s Shiny Spice collection.
Strawberry Rose
This was my personal favorite petit four. I love any excuse to add rosewater to my desserts. Add strawberry jelly and I’m on Cloud 9! Honestly, the rosewater buttercream was so good I think I was ready to stop making the petit fours all together so I could eat all the frosting in one sitting. I’m drooling just writing about the sugared flower flavor. I also love this one because of the beautiful red layer when you bite in. With a black fondant and gold sugar sheets, I thought these looked really beautiful for a party and a perfect middle note scent to accompany Sabon’s Shiny Spice.
Petit Fours are actually really easy to make, but do take time and a bit of patience since everything is mini. It’s a perfect bite-sized dessert containing bite-sized cake layers and covered in icing or fondant. Or, if you want to put your own spin on it, you can coat the bites in melted chocolate or melted candy chips. I recommend treating this project like a cookie party: it’s a weekend event. Just like cookie decorating, it’s both a baking and a craft project.
The superstar of these Petit Fours is my Italian buttercream recipe that we will be making and flavoring for the perfect desired consistency and flavor. You can also make your own flavors and experiment with designs for tops and sides that will make yours extra special for the holidays.
Some other flavoring ideas: almond extract, orange extract, peppermint, raspberry, raspberry lemon, white chocolate, burnt almond, caramel, and mocha.
- 1 Sheet Pan pound cake
- 4 oz. cream cheese
- Italian Buttercream frosting (or any frosting you love to eat lots of)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar put in a bowl for sprinkling
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp dark rum optional, put in a bowl for sprinkling
- 1 jar lemon curd
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice fresh
- 1/2 tsp lemon zest fresh
- for some variety, you can add raspberry jam as well. I did not, but thought this would be delicious.
- 1 jar strawberry jam
- 1 tsp rosewater
- Fondant in black and white (homemade tastes even better if you have the time!)
- Edible gold sheets
- Edible Glitter Spray (for the Vanilla Bombe)
- Edible gold stars
- *If you want to get creative, you can coat your mini cakes in white chocolate, milk chocolate, candy coating chips, or royal icing for the final layer. I chose fondant because it looks the smoothest for the end result. Fondant layers easily on top of the cake like playdough.
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Bake the cake as directed, but in a 18 by 13 inch sheet pan. Basically you are baking in a half cake sheet. If you do a cookie sheet without a high enough lip you risk the cake overflowing. I found about 22 minutes to be about perfect for my oven, but the best thing to do is keep an eye on the cake with the oven light on after about 18 minutes for best results. You are not looking for a super brown cake or it will be dry. Just make sure to check it cooked through for proper firmness. In my experience, pound cakes tend to shrink from the edges of the pan when done.
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While your cake is baking, make the Italian Buttercream Frosting as directed. Split into 3rds, leaving ⅓ in the mixer bowl.
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Lemon Zest
With the 3rd left in the mixer bowl, add 4 oz cream cheese, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Set aside.
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Vanilla Bombe Alaska
Optional: Add 1 tsp of vanilla extract and mix in the 3rd of frosting.
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Strawberry Rose
Add the rosewater and mix in the frosting.
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Cool the cake completely so it doesn’t crumble. If it still looks crumbly, try putting the cake in the freezer for up to an hour.
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Slice the cake widthwise (this is where a cake leveler makes this quick and easy!)
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Cut the cake into 4 rectangles: 1 for the lemon zest, 1 for the vanilla bombe, 1 for the strawberry rose, and 1 for the flavor of your choice. *Lemon Zest was the most popular at our house and needed a second rectangle. It’s also helpful to have a little extra just in case.
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Lemon Zest
Lift the top of the cake off with a cake lifter or cutting mat. Flip the top so the inside of the cake is visible (to add filling). On the bottom half, spread the lemon curd VERY generously over the cake. On the other half, spread the lemon buttercream frosting. Put the top half of the cake back on, add the rest of the frosting to the top of the cake, and cut the filled cake into 1” squares. Set aside.
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Vanilla Bombe Alaska
Lift the top of the cake off with a cake lifter or cutting mat. On the bottom half, spread a generous amount of the vanilla buttercream. Put the top half of the cake back on and cut the filled cake into 1” squares. Set aside.
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Strawberry Rose
Lift the top of the cake off with a cake lifter or cutting mat. Flip the top so the inside of the cake is visible (to add filling). On the bottom half, spread the strawberry jam VERY generously over the cake. On the other half, spread the rose buttercream frosting. Put the top half of the cake back on, add the rest of the frosting to the top of the cake, and cut the filled cake into 1” squares. Set aside.
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This part is easily adaptable for any theme and color. Below is how I created what you see in my photos.
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Vanilla Bombe Alaska
1. Cover each 1” square with the vanilla buttercream on the sides (not the top or bottom). Then, in a piping bag, add the rest of the vanilla buttercream to the tops until you have little iceberg peaks. Put your sugar in a small bowl and your rum in a small bowl. With your fingers, sprinkle sugar on top of all the buttercream iceberg tops. Then, with your fingers, sprinkle a little rum on top of each cake.
2. Get your torch nice and hot until it’s blue. If it’s not hot enough, you risk tasting the lighting fluid flavor (it’s happened to me before!). Then run your torch until you melt your icebergs into the desired snow effect.
3. Put in the fridge for cooling, then spray each cake with the gold edible glitter.
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Lemon Zest
*Spread the buttercream from the top and onto the sides if coating in anything but the fondant to cover crumbs.
Roll the white fondant out and cover each cake with a thin layer. Pat down until you can’t see the seams, then cut any excess off each cake. Sprinkle with the edible gold stars. Set aside. I put them in the fridge. -
Strawberry Rose
*Spread the buttercream from the top and onto the sides if coating in anything but the fondant to cover crumbs.
Roll the black fondant out and cover each cake with a thin layer. Pat down until you can’t see the seams, then cut any excess off each cake.
Cut a gold sheet into strips, then cover twice in alternating directions to mimic wrapping a present. Then, add a bow by criss-crossing the “ribbon” and press on with a little of the fondant.
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You can put these in mini boxes for gifting with a Sabon pairing or serve on a pretty plate for a party. 🙂
Now that you’ve made these delicious petit fours, it’s definitely time to lean back, relax, enjoy the luxury, and take a moment before the rush of holiday parties. I love this new Limited Edition scent. It reminds me of fresh cut grass and the holidays–a perfect scent to carry from winter and into early spring. But don’t even get me started on this shower oil. Everyone I’ve ever gifted it to comes back and tells me they can never go back to anything else. It’s so moisturizing, smells amazing, and gently scents my skin all day long. Same for the dead sea salts body scrubs.
And what better way to prepare for holiday parties and gift giving than taking care of yourself for total immersion of fragrance and aroma luxury.
While compensation was received in exchange for coverage, all thoughts and opinions are always my own. Sponsored posts like these allow for the development of additional dynamic content to be produced, unsponsored. Please use the code PLUM when you purchase Sabon’s new holiday collections (not including gift sets) for 15% off between 11/15-12/31/2019. Thank you for supporting our partners!
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