Easy Patriotic Petit Fours

Star-shaped petit fours in patriotic colors will make your Memorial Day or July Fourth holiday extra-special! This shortcut recipe is quick and easy using ready-made pound cake from your local bakery or grocery store.

Today we’re prepping for our long Memorial Day weekend. This involves lots of grilling, cool treats, and even a puppy birthday party for our Churro pug. We’ll also be visiting family lakeside, so I wanted to make something cute to bring for dessert.

These little petit fours couldn’t be easier to make. You’ll need a 2-inch star-shaped cookie cutter, a ready-made pound cake (1 lb.), three tubs of ready-made vanilla frosting and a little food color.

Ready-Made to the Rescue!

I used a loaf of all-butter frozen pound cake (thawed) for this recipe, but you can also use your favorite scratch-made pound cake if you prefer. Using a serrated knife or cake leveler, cut the top and bottom crusts from the pound cake, and then cut the cake lengthwise in 1/2-inch thick slabs. You should have two long slabs of cake from which to stamp shapes.

The star cutter I used measures about 2 1/4-inches. You can easily get 6 pieces from each slab using this size cutter (or 7 if you’re conservative with your cutting). Place the cake stars on a cooling rack, and then place the rack inside a parchment-lined pan.

Remove the lids and foils from the tops of each frosting tub and microwave each at 30 second intervals until melted and pourable (about 1 minute total). Stir sky blue food color into one tub, and red food color into another. You’ll leave one tub untinted.

Liberally pour the frosting over the stars so they are completely coated. You’ll need to turn the pan to examine all sides of the stars to make sure they all get well-coated. Let the cakes stand for about 2 minutes, and then lightly sprinkle on decors. I used some wispy gold stars, which you can find here and just a teensy sprinkle of edible gold glitter.

If you’re looking for a completely scratch-made petit fours recipe with all the time constraints involved, then I still stand by this old favorite from 2011. But if you’re in a hurry, this recipe is a huge time-saver! And if you use all-butter pound cake these are quite tasty, too. This project is easy enough to get the kiddos involved, and they will love to help stamp shapes and pour frosting.

Not all canned frostings are equal. Some are too sweet or artificial tasting, and if you have a favorite then by all means use that one! I’ll leave my recommendation in the recipe.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Easy Patriotic Petit Fours

Heather Baird

Star-shaped petit fours in patriotic colors will make your Memorial Day or July Fourth holiday extra-special! This shortcut recipe is quick and easy using ready-made pound cake from your local bakery or grocery store.

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 1 min

30 minutes setting time 30 mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 12

Equipment

• 2-inch star-shaped cookie cutter

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

1x2x3x

• 1 16 oz. Sara Lee frozen all-butter pound cake, thawed
• 3 tubs 16 oz. each ready-made classic vanilla frosting (not the whipped variety)
• Red and sky blue gel food color
• Gold star sprinkles
• Edible gold glitter optional

Instructions

 

• Using a serrated knife or cake leveler thinly cut the top and bottom crusts from the pound cake. Cut the cake in half lengthwise into 1/2-inch slabs. You should have two long slabs of cake from which to stamp shapes. Stamp about six stars from each slab using the cutter.
• Place the cake stars on a cooling rack, and then place the rack inside a large parchment-lined pan.
• Remove the lids and foils from the tops of each frosting tub (flavor-wise, Duncan Hines is recommended) and microwave each at 30 second intervals until melted and pourable (about 1 minute total). Stir sky blue food color into one tub until a vibrant color is achieved; add red food color to another tub and stir. You’ll leave one tub untinted so that you’ll have red, white, and blue tubs of frosting.
• Liberally pour the blue frosting over four stars until they are completely coated. Pour the red over four, and pour the white over four. You’ll need to turn the pan to examine all sides of the stars to make sure they all get well-coated. Let the cakes stand for about 2 minutes, and then lightly sprinkle on decors and glitter, if using.
• Let stand until set, about 30 minutes, or transfer to the refrigerator to speed setting. Place each petit four inside a cupcake paper and display on a serving tray.

Notes

You’ll need a 2-inch star-shaped cookie cutter for this recipe. The one I used was about 2 1/4 inches.

Keyword easy, lemon pound cake, petit fours

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