Delectable desserts set hearts a-flutter

Valentine's Day is synonymous with candlelight dinners, romantic movies and delicious desserts. Although chocolate is often standard fare for the day of love, many other treats, including petit fours, can win the heart of a special person.

Although people often believe the term petit four refers to a particular recipe for a dessert, it actually denotes a variety of small desserts. Petit fours are bite-sized pastries generally eaten at the end of a meal or at tea time. The name is comprised of French terms meaning "small oven," which generally means the desserts are cooked at a low temperature in an oven. Petit fours may be "secs," meaning "dry" desserts, including biscuits and puff pastries. Most are "glaces," or "iced" desserts, such as tiny cakes. These are often the desserts people associate with the name "petit fours."

Cake-type petit fours are traditionally made from an almond flavored sponge cake or an almond genoise. Other types of cake, such as pound cake, can be used, but the consistency must be firm enough to handle cutting and filling. The options in fillings and coatings is as endless as the imagination. Some prefer to coat them in fondant, a sugary dough that hardens upon standing and produces a firm, flat surface for decorating. Others like their petit fours covered in chocolate or another candy material.

These desserts are available from many bakeries and retailers. For those who want to treat a Valentine to homemade petit fours, one trick is to bake the batter in mini loaf pans and then cut in half, or use small cupcake tins to achieve the desired, bite-sized shape. Or bake the batter in a sheet pan and then use cookie cutters to make small shapes. Jams, fruit preserves, frosting, icing, almond paste, and any other fillings can be used in between the layers.

Fondant can be purchased from party and craft stores or specially ordered from cake decorating retailers. An easy fondant can be made from a confectioners' sugar and marshmallow recipe.

After a romantic meal, serve petit fours with a dessert liqueur for the perfect Valentine's Day dessert.