Halloween Petit Fours

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

For cake:

Spray pan or prepare a 13×9 in baking pan.(I use Pam Baking Spray.)

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, usually about five minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, salt, cocoa, and baking powder.

Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the dissolved coffee and buttermilk.

Add batter to prepared pan.

Bake for 45 to 60 minutes, checking regularly at the 35-minute mark. When an inserted toothpick is removed clean, the cake is done.

Let cool completely.

For Frosting:

Cream together butter, sugar, and shortening until light and smooth. Add vanilla. It should appear almost ‘dry.’ Add 3 or 4 tablespoons milk to get a soft, creamy consistency.

Use a small cookie cutter to cut out your petit fours. For a square, you can just cut lines into your cake pan.

Remove squares and cut in half into two ‘layers.’ Pipe frosting to create a cake ‘sandwich.’

You can also remove cake from pan (it is very dense, like a chocolate pound cake) and cut in half horizontally. Remove the top layer, put a layer of frosting on, then put back the top layer of the cake. Now proceed to cut out individual petit fours.

You can cover petit fours with remaining frosting or cover in rolled or liquid fondant.

Petit fours can be any shape, but usually no bigger than 2×2 inches.

Decorate however you would like!