Man do I love a french fancy. They're pretty and pink, dainty and sweet. Perfect afternoon tea food. What's not to love?!
I remember watching an episode of the Great British Bake Off where they made french fancies for a technical challenge. Holy moly what a mess they got in! Crumbling sponges, gloopy, irregular icing - both tragic and hysterically funny for viewers.
When I had left over sponge and fondant icing from middle nephew's bad ass t-rex cake I knew exactly what I was wanted to create. Fondant fancies are indeed a bit fiddly and mine are slightly wonky, but they tasted delicious and I had a lot of fun making them. That could partly be because I had Gilmore Girls on tv in the background. :D
I definitely want to make these again. The only change I'd make would be to omit the butter icing from the middle of the sponges and just use jam. I don't think it's necessary considering the outside is covered in a layer of butter icing before adding the melted fondant layer. It's pretty sweet as it is!
I also need to learn to let the fancies fully dry on the cooling rack before transferring onto plates. So much stickiness. They looked relatively presentable until I tried to move them for photos, oops!
I would write down a recipe but I have no real recollection of quantities as I made these back in March. However, I'll write down a general set of instructions if anyone else fancies making their own french fancies.
Bake a basic sponge mix (I use Mary Berry's sponge traybake recipe) in an oblong tin. Once your sponge is fully cool, preferably the following day when the sponge is a bit more stable, cut it in half horizontally and sandwich together with a layer of jam.
Cut the sponge into cubes then fully cover each cube, except the bottom, with a thin layer of butter icing (you can add food colouring if you like.) Heat your spatula/spreading knife in a cup of hot water to help your icing spread and smooth down edges.
While your butter icing is setting, melt your block of fondant icing in a large heatproof bowl. I did this by gradually pouring enough boiling water over it and mixing until it softened and achieved a good pouring consistency. Add some food colouring but keep some white spare for decoration at the end.
Pour the melted fondant over each cube. You can use a spatula/knife to encourage the icing to reach edges or corners. Finally, fill an icing pen with the remaining white melted fondant (or use a teaspoon) to pipe/drizzle zig zags across each cube.
Leave to dry then serve. You can store these in a container if you like but bear in mind the fondant icing will become very sticky. This will not affect the taste though :)