French Fancies Recipe

Today we had a practice run at making French Fancies.

Story goes that a friend of ours has fond memories of her mother making french fancies when she was a child.  Her mum sadly is no longer with her but her memories remain.  Seeing as I am always one for a challenge thought I would have a trial run at making these little square cakes. 

I have no photos yet as my icing didn't turn out that good.  I really need to tweak the recipe yet as I found them a little too sweet.

Here is how we started

For the cake bit which actually turned out perfect.

250ml milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
30g margarine
140g caster sugar
2 Tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla flavour
200g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 180C and grease (or line) a square or rectangular baking tin.

Combine the cider vinegar and milk and set aside to curdle a little. Mix together the margarine and sugar rill fluffy(ish) then add the oil and vanilla and beat well. Add all the dry ingredients and the milk alternately into the margarine mixture, stirring well after each addition but be careful not to over mix. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 18 - 20 minutes or until golden all over and feels firm to touch. Let cool in pan then carefully turn out.

Cut the cake slab in half, spread raspberry or strawberry jam over one side then place the other half on top. Cut this into squares, however many or size you want.

For the soft blobby bit on the top

4 tablespoons of margarine
3/4 of a cup of icing sugar
1/2 tea spoon vanilla flavour

mix will and add a blob of this cream frosting to the top of each square.

The runny fondant icing - this is the bit that was too sweet for me

3 cups of icing sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon of golden syrup (I think I added too much)
you will need a flavour/colour - I added a few drops of yellow colour and lemon juice

Gently heat the fondant icing ingredients in a pan till runny and simply pour over the squares you have cut.  You may need to practice a little to get them looking perfect.



Verdict - Good, all got eaten yet personally I thought they were a bit sweet but I am definitely going to try these again and next time will photograph them too.