Ta-da!!!

Here are my delicious creations from yesterday for anyone interested:

For my very first attempt at petit fours (did you know that they are prounced petty-fours?  I had no idea and would have just kept calling them petite fours....I like the sound of that better, oh well), I have to pat myself on the back.  I was reading about the labor involved in making these, but I have to say that I really enjoyed it (I think because I really have no artistic bone in my body, but making things like this has been helping to cultivate that a tiny bit).  I started with a simple cream cheese pound cake.  Once I sliced up the cake into tiny cakes, I spread an almond-raspberry filling inside them.  I then coated them with a poured fondant-like glaze (mine was really very similar to thinned royal icing), and followed that with some squiggles of melted chocolate.  I'm extremely happy with them and will definitely make them again.  Plus, they are delicious!  They got the Chris-Seal-of-Approval, who is always very honest about what he likes in a dessert and doesn't like, so I know they're good.  The raspberry is such a perfect compliment to the pound cake, but the great thing is that really there are endless possibilities as to what kind of flavor combinations could go into these.  I definitely foresee making these during the holidays.

That is all, I really just wanted to show off the results of my getting back into the kitchen yesterday :-)