Eraser petit fours

Petit fours are usually covered in fondant , icing or chocolate in white or pastels. White erasors are brilliant for making petit fours with. The ones you find on the top of pencils are the right size. If you can find pencils with colored erasers they are  brilliant too.

 I also found erasers  that are the same shape but in longer lengths. They come in small boxes and are made in Japan. If you can find them they are totally awesome for they come in lots of colors. I found mine on Ebay.com   There are also little boxes of these erasers in kits with stationary for kids. 

What you will need to make petit fours:

Erasors

Narrow silk ribbon ( your choice of colors)

Tacky glue.

For decorations :

Matching silk ribbon and a rose maker

or

Paper or plastic mini flowers

Flower foam ( optional)

Cut the erasors off the pencils just above the metal thingy.

Wrap and glue a piece of silk ribbon round the erasor at the bottom. Be very careful when gluing silk ribbon : the ribbon absorbs the glue , but the glue also stains it.

Decorate the top of your petit fours. Silk flowers to match the ribbon look very elegant but paper flowers can be just as nice. If you like you can add a little bit of flower foam next to the flowers or even instead of the flowers.

I did an all white version too and decorated the tops of the cakes with no hole pearls.

 Here are some more petit fours to inspire you . I used erasors, ribbon, nail art items like stickers and micro beads and paper flowers.

Chocolate petit fours.

Ingredients :

Per Petit Four one eraser like the one we used before.

Acrylic paints in a nice chocolaty color.

Tacky glue

A pin for a handle and a clothes pin 

To decorate your Petit Fours:

Very fine gravel ( from the train shop) mixed with some slivers of green plastic or the smallest green bits from a bag of floral foam.

Dried pepper seeds

White eraser grindings

Cork grindings

Mustard seeds. You can use them in their natural color ( light brown or black) or painted in an  other color like : dark brown or white.

Paper flowers ( or really small plastic ones) plus a tiny bead for the flower center.

Cut the erasers just above the metal ring on the pencils. If you like smaller petit fours you can cut them smaller or slice them in half like I did for the ones on the white plate.

To get a nice chocolate coating do what a real baker does and do dip your petit fours into chocolate ( paint) instead of painting them. Use the pin as a handle and the clothes pins as stands to keep them standing while drying. If a drop of paint forms at the bottom of the petit four, wipe it away carefully before it dries.  If  you are happy with the chocolate coating you can move on to the decorating part if not just repeat the chocolate dipping till you are happy with the result.

There is tons and tons of decorating options for these little cakes. A lot of fun are seeds from sweet bell peppers. Just save the seeds and dry them whenever you use a bell pepper in cooking.

There are several ways to create nuts for your decorating.  Model train shops often sell little bags of very fine gravel. Another option is making your own by using a cork and a nutmeg grinder. A white eraser given the same treatment makes lovely dried coconut.  Mustard seeds make great nuts or chocolates depending on the color.  Bags of flower foam offer tons of possibilities. The smallest bits of green make great chopped pistachio nuts. Other colors of the foam look splendid on different colors of petit fours.

Decorations can be glued on with Tacky glue. Start with the nuts or coconut and do not use too much, just a little looks best. Pepper seeds, mustard seeds and flowers make great final touches. Once again do try your own variations using different colors and different types of paint etc.

You can buy colored erasers to make different colors of petit fours or paint them.

Coloured  erasers decorated with paper flowers, no hole beads and nail stickes