Miniature Florentine Squares

By norsegal8

If you’ve never attempted fancy miniatures before, you’ll be amazed at how polished a petit four you can produce. The base of these mini cakes is the Ladyfinger Génoise, the sturdiest génoise in the repertoire. It is brushed with a gloss of sweet wine syrup and currant jelly and glazed with white chocolate ganache. But its prettiest and most ingenious touch is the way it is decorated, a technique you’ll pull from your baker’s bag of tricks to use again and again. By piping randomly spaced lines of milk and dark chocolate over the white glaze and running a pick across the surface, you’ll create a marbleized design the echoes the intricate patterns celebrated by Florence’s master papermakers.

Ingredients

• THE CAKE
• 1 recipe Ladyfinger Génoise batter
• 1/4 cup sweet dessert wine, such as a Muscat
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2/3 cup red currant jelly, pressed through a strainer (or another flavor ie apricot, raspberry, etc.)
• THE GLAZE
• 12 ounces white chocolate
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• DECORATION
• 2 ounces milk chocolate, melted and still warm
• 2 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted and still warm

Details

Servings 36

Preparation

Step 1

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch square cake pan with solid shortening, dust with flour and tap out the excess. Fit the bottom of the pan with a parchment or waxed paper square.

BAKING THE CAKE
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top, creating a slight ridge of batter around the edges. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly prodded and the cake starts to come away from the sides of the pan. Transfer the cake to a rack and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes.
To remove the cake from the pan, first test its readiness. Tilt and rotate the pan, then gently tap it on the counter. If it doesn’t seem as if the cake is releasing from the pan, run a thin blade between the cake and the side of the pan, freeing the sides and letting a little air get under the cake. Invert the cake onto the rack and remove the pan. Slowly peel off the parchment liner, turn it over, and put it back on the cake. Cover the cake with another rack and invert again. Remove the top rack and let the cake cool completely right side up. The cake can remain uncovered at room temperature for a day, but it should be wrapped in plastic if you won’t be using it within 2 days. For longer storage, wrap it well and freeze it; it will keep for up to 10 days.

MAKING THE SYRUP
Stir the sweet wine and the sugar together in a small bowl until the sugar dissolves and keep close at hand.

FILLING THE CAKE
Carefully, using a gentle sawing motion, cut the cake in half horizontally. Place the bottom layer, cut side up, on a cardboard cake round or the removable bottom of a tart pan. Brush the sweet wine syrup over the cut side of the layer. Spread a thin layer of the currant jelly over the cake and cover with the top layer.
Keeping the cake on its cardboard, place it on a wire rack on a jelly-roll pan.
Put the chopped chocolate into a medium bowl and pour the cream into a heavy-bottomed 1 ½-quart saucepan. Heat the cream just to the boil and then pour it over the chocolate, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula. The chocolate may look lumpy, but it will smooth out as you stir it. When the glaze is creamy smooth, push it through a strainer into a bowl.
You want to use the glaze while it’s still warm and liquid. To test, spread a little of the glaze on a piece of white bread; it should seep in just a little bit. (If the glaze has cooled and is no longer spreadable – it thickens as it stands – heat it over a pan of hot water.

GLAZING THE CAKE
Pour the warm glaze over the cake and spread it evenly over the top, using a flexible metal icing spatula. Don’t be concerned if some of the glaze dribbles down the sides of the cake.

DECORATING THE CAKE
Spoon the melted chocolate into 2 small decorating bags fitted with a very small writing tip. Test to see that the chocolate flows easily from the cones. Immediately pipe several lines of milk chocolate across the surface of the cake; don’t be concerned about spacing them or keeping them perfectly straight – even squiggles will come out fine in the end. Pipe semisweet lines in the same fashion. Draw a multi-pronged tool (a clean hair pick is perfect for this), or a nail or the tip of a very thin knife, across the lines, pulling the chocolate just a little to create a marbled effect. Let the glaze dry at room temperature for 1 hour, or chill until set.

CUTTING THE CAKE
When you are ready to cut the cake, have a long, serrated knife, a glass of hot water, paper towels and a 12-inch ruler at hand. Trim a sliver of cake from each side. Using the ruler as a guide and the tip of the knife as a marker, mark small notches in the glaze every 1 ½ inches across the top and bottom of the cake. (Depending on how much the cake has shrunk or has been trimmed, you may have to measure a scant 1 ½ inches.) Repeat this procedure down the sides, making sure that the notches line up directly across from one another.
Dip the knife into the hot water, wipe it with a paper towel and, using just the tip of the knife and the ruler as your guide, score the glaze (don’t cut through the cake) in straight lines from one notch to another so that the pattern for cutting squares is formed. Now cut through the scored lines, heating and cleaning the knife between cuts.

STORING
Once glazed and cut, the cake should be served within an hour or two, but if you cut it and don’t separate the pieces, you can keep the cake for several hours.

ROUND CAKES
To make the same cakes in a round shape, follow all of the instructions to the point where you have cut the cake in half horizontally, put the syrup on it, the jelly on it and put the second layer on the top. Put the cake into the refrigerator to chill slightly.
Using a 1 ½-inch round biscuit cutter, cut as many rounds from the cake as you can. (You will get about 24.) Follow the remaining instructions for glazing and decorating. Instead of lines, you can do polka dots and small hearts with the decorating bags full of chocolate.