Sugar-Coated Sundays: Brown Sugar Cake Petite Fours

I made cake.  

Birthday cake.  Party cake.  Too goo to be true cake.  

"Wait, you made this with a mix and canned frosting?" cake.

Brown Sugar Cake Petite Fours

Adapted from Kraft

Ingredients:

Cake

1 package yellow cake mix

1 - 3.4 ounce package instant vanilla pudding

4 eggs

2/3 cup sour cream

2/3 cup water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup orange liqueur  {I used Cointreau}

1 can milk chocolate frosting

1/2 cup whole pecans

Directions:

Cake

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, combine yellow cake mix, vanilla pudding, eggs, sour cream, water, and oil until well combined.  Add brown sugar; mix well.
3. Coat a 9" x 13" non-stick baking pan with cooking spray.  Pour cake batter into prepared pan
4. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
5. Cool cake completely and remove from pan.

I had some trouble getting my to just release from the pan.  I cut the cake into 8 pieces and removed it piece by piece from the pan.  That worked out since I'm cutting up the cake anyway.  If you're presenting a whole cake you may want to butter and flour your pan and see if you heave better luck.

Assembly!

Cut the edges off cake pieces.

Using a serrated knife, level cake top.  Cut each cake piece in half horizontally.

Remove top from each cake piece.

Brush the bottom half of the cake with orange liqueur.  Top with a thin layer of frosting.

Replace cake tops and press gently to "glue" the cake pieces together.

Cute each cake piece into quarters.

My cake pieces were about 1" x 2".

To make super fancy petite fours:

Place remaining chocolate frosting into a microwave safe bowl.

Microwave frosting for 20 seconds.

Remove bowl and stir frosting.  Nuke for another 20 seconds, stir frosting again.

Frosting should be smooth and runny.

Place a cake square onto a fork and hold over frosting bowl.

Using a spoon, drizzle melted frosting over the cake until top and all sides are coated.

Place cake square onto a cooling rack to let excess frosting run off.

Top cake square with a pecan.

YUM!

The Cointreau gives this cake a whole new flavor level and is amazing with the chocolate.

No surprise there.  Chocolate and orange is a natural pairing.

I did get impatient and also realized I didn't have enough frosting to perfectly coat each cake square.  So I didn't a messy casual petite four for the remaining cake.

Spoon some frosting onto the cake. 

Run the back of your spoon in a circle over cake top to spread frosting.

Frosting will run over the sides of the cake.

Top with a pecan.

I like the casual cakes better, they feel more approachable.

Now go eat some cake!