Fondant Fancies

With sunshine comes the good mood that sees me buying dungarees, pastel coloured socks, not grunting at the crowds of people in Liverpool on a bank holiday weekend and having the urge to make fondant fancies! I came home one day last week to find someone had 'taken' my piping bag (there is a lot of 'taking' going on here at the moment, I cannot wait to move out into our own apartment where I can keep my stand mixer out and still come home to it!) so the chocolate drizzle on top isn't fab but I tried two different ways did the best job I could without my tools!

This recipe requires slightly more effort than any of my other posts but I can assure you that when you've tried it once it will be a breeze the next time and I speak on behalf of myself and my friends who I have shared these little delights with that it is well worth the extra time and effort!


The marzipan layer makes them even yummier than good ol' Mr Kiplings Fondant Fancies and who doesn't prefer homemade cakes?
These fondant fancies will impress their devourers whether served on a pretty tiered cake stand for afternoon tea or plonked straight on the table still in their tin for the busier days.

Ingredients

(makes 8 in a standard loaf tin)
For the cake:
110 g self-raising flour
110 g granulated sugar
110 g unsalted butter
4 tbsp lemon juice
2 eggs

For the butter cream:
100 g unsalted butter
100 g icing sugar

For the marzipan:
1 tbsp apricot jam
100 g natural coloured marzipan

For the fondant icing:
160 g fondant icing sugar
16 tsp water
flavourings and colourings if desired
25 g plain chocolate

Directions

I don't normally bullet point my direcions as I like to waffle on but I think it would be better for me to just get straight to the point with this recipe!

1. Pre heat oven to 170 degrees C and line a 1 lb loaf tin.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy then beat in the eggs and add the flour and lemon juice. Pour into loaf tin and bake for ~30 minutes until golden brown and a cocktail stick comes out clean.

3. Leave the cake in its tin for about 10 minutes before taking it out to cool on a wire rack. Once cool chill in the fridge or to save time put in the freezer for a few minutes. 

4. While the cake is chilling make the butter cream by combining 100g of butter with 100g of icing sugar and mixing vigorously until smooth and paler in colour - no lumps!

5. Put 50 g of the butter cream in a piping bag (or a good quality freezer bag that you can cut a corner off later) and pop in the fridge for later. Leave the rest of it in the bowl.

6. Roll the marzipan into a rectangle a little larger than the top of the cake.

7.  Put 1 tbsp of apricot jam in a microwaveable bowl and heat for 15 seconds on high. Brush it on top of the rolled marzipan and carefully lift the apricot covered marzipan and place it on top of the cake.

 

8. Very carefully turn the cake upside down so the marzipan is now at the bottom. The weight of the cake will help the marzipan to stick and this make it easier to neatly trim the marzipan over hang. Put the cake back in the fridge to chill or the freezer for a couple of minutes.

9. Whilst the cake is still in the upside position cut it down the middle then cut the two shorter edges off up to where the longer edges are completely straight i.e. cut the corners off so you have straighter, neater edges that are much easier to ice. Discard (eat) the over hang cake.

 

 10. Put a fork into the bottom (opposite side to the marzipan) edge of a square at a 45 degree angle so it is easy to remove. Use a palette knife to cover the 4 side faces in butter cream. Repeat for the remaining 7 squares making sure you set them down marzipan side up. 

11. Take the butter cream in the piping bag and pipe a dollop onto the centre of each cake on top of the marzipan then mould the dollop into a smooth circle with your fingers.

12. Put the cakes back in the fridge to chill for about 20 minutes untill the butter cream has set fully. The 'more' set the better as it is easier to palette knife the fondant on to it.

13. For the fondant icing combine the fondant icing sugar (I am not sure what the equivalent it elsewhere but in UK it is sold in identical packaging to the regular silver spoon icing sugar but green and has dried glucose syrup in it where as regular icing sugar has an anti-caking agent in it.) and the 16 tsp of water (generally 1 tsp for every 10 g of icing sugar) and mix together until a smooth paste is formed. It should be runny but not so runny that it falls straight off the cake, it should be the consistency of a good lemon curd. Now add food colouring and flavourings, keeping in mind liquid flavourings such as lemon juice add extra liquid so remember to subsititue it for however many teaspoons of water. 

14. Position a fork in one cake the same way as earlier only this time tilting the cake holding the marzipan to push the fork in the bottom of the sponge. Take the palette knife again (clean!) and spread the fondant onto the cake. One technique is to drizzle a blob over the dome and let it run down all the sides then 'catch' it and spread it evenly over the side faces. Make sure you do this over a clean plate or bowl to catch the icing that drips off to avoid unneccesary waste. Another technique is to transfer the mixed fondant to a plate and roll the cakes in it then spread the icing evenly with the palette knife.

15. Leave the cakes until the fondant has completely set. Do not leave them to set in the fridge as will cause the icing to lose its shine.

16. Melt the 25 g of plain chocolate and transfer to a piping bag. Using a 3mm nozzle drizzle the chocolate over the fondant fancies in a zig zag pattern or drizzle it in three lines and use a cocktail stick to 'pull' the chocolate up and down alternatively. (I tried both, the latter not really working for me as I don't have any cocktail sticks - the edge of a teaspoon was a little too chunky!)

 17. Leave the fondant fancies to set, serve and ENJOY! Preferably in the sunshine! ;)