Welcome to Friday's Featured Artisan! Each week, we focus on one of the many talented individuals and companies whose perfect products are proudly featured in GiftTree gifts. It may be a master chocolatier, a gourmet cheesemonger or a talented artist – GiftTree is here to connect their meaningful stories to the discovery of your next great gifting moment.Have you ever had petits fours? They're bite-sized cakes that originated in France in the 1700s, made in the smaller oven next to the main oven in traditional French kitchens. The baker's main reason for making petits fours was simply to take advantage of the stored heat and lower temperature during the cooling process of the coal-fired brick ovens. Petits fours come in three types – sec, like a meringue or macaron, sale, savory bite-sized appetizers, or its most popular form, glace, tiny iced and decorated cakes with layers of sponge cake and jam or chocolate ganache, covered in fondant and finished with tiny decorations.
Friday's Featured Artisan Dragonfly Cakes is one of the most well-known makers of glace petits fours, and its owner, Brooks Nguyen, is credited for her part in elevating the petits fours' modern popularity in the United States. Brooks started baking sweets and treats as a kid growing up in the Bay Area, but she didn't make a career out of it until she was out of college. She had already delved into the business world and had a few corporate positions behind her when she reached a crossroads and decided to enroll in the Baking and Pastry Program at the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena, California. There, Brooks quickly discovered her passion for baking cakes and cake decorating.
On the Dragonfly Cakes website, she writes "To me, petits fours are the perfect combination of the two: a moist, flavorful bite of cake coupled with intricate decoration. They're festive enough for any occasion, and the ideal way to celebrate every day."Featured in numerous pastry, wedding and homemaking magazines, Dragonfly Cakes' petits fours are picture-perfect and decorated for almost any occasion you can think of! GiftTree happily carries Dragonfly Cakes' delicious little petits fours in many different occasions, including Birthday, Thank You, New Baby and seasonal holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving and Halloween. We hope you get the chance to send these bite-sized delicacies to someone you love, or better yet, send yourself a box and satisfy that sweet tooth!