Fondant Fancies

I have no idea what posessed me to do this to myself today...
After a dreadful morning running around hunting down my lost iPhone and wasting at least half a tank of gas retracing my steps I thought - I know, lets bake some really fiddly time consuming Fondant Fancies - I must be insane!  To be fair I had been obsessing about cooking these little beauties all week long (low carb diets will do that to a girl...)

I was always a fan of the Mr Kipling French Fancies.  Then after the popularity of the Lamington post last week I thought - how can we expand upon the complexity of that but with a similar theme...Fancies.

To the un-initiated a Fondant Fancy is a square of sponge cake topped with a little dollop (technical term) of flavoured buttercream - in this case strawberry. Then covered in a smooth glossy fondant icing to give a smooth appearance.  They sometimes accompany coffee as Petit Fours after a meal.  One perfect little mouthful.

I used the same basic sponge mixture as the Lamington from last week but used a much larger sheet cake tin and as I thought the sponge again worked beautifully.  While the cake is cooking mix up your flavoured buttercream (won't need too much) to a stiff'ish consistency but can still be piped.

Ingredients - Sponge
4 Free Range Eggs
3/4 Cup Caster Sugar
1 Cup GF Plain Flour  (self raising makes for a soapy taste in this large cake)
1 Teaspoon GF Baking Powder


Buttercream
2 Cups Pure Icing Sugar
1/4 Cup softened Unsalted Butter
Strawberry Essence
Little milk 


Fondant
3 Cups Pure Icing Sugar
Strawberry Essence
Water

1. Heat oven to 160C fan forced.  Little higher if not fan forced.
2. In a large bowl or in your bowl mixer if you have one, beat your 4 eggs for 10 full minutes until thick and very creamy.
3. Gradually add the sugar to the eggs continue beating until sugar is dissolved.  You can test for this by pinching a little of the mixture between thumb and forefinger and rubbing.  If you still feel granules keep beating a little longer.
4. Sift the flour and Baking powder into the mix and carefully fold it into the egg mix being careful to keep the beautiful air in the mix.
5. Into the greased and lined sheet cake tin pour your mix.
6. Bake until set - about 35 - 40 minutes.  Remove and turn out immediately onto a wire cake rack that has been covered in a sheet of baking paper.
7. Once cool - using a large sharp knife trim the edges of the cake and slice to the size you want for your fancies - usually about 2-3 cm squares.  I did not need to refrigerate mine but if crumbly place in freezer for about 5-10 minutes.
8. Make up the buttercream icing in a separate bowl by using an electric mixer to mix the icing sugar, flavouring and butter then add just enough milk to achieve desired consistency.  and pipe a small mound onto the top of each square of cake.  It is roughly the size and shape of a marble placed in the centre of each little cake.  Set aside and let these harden.
9. Once the buttercream has become a little dry and harder they are ready to be coated in the fondant icing.  I read many recipes for this but decided to try the most simple method - see above ingredients.
10. For the Fondant, mix the sifted 100% pure icing sugar (not icing mixture) into a bowl.  Add about 1 tsp strawberry essence to the mix and begin mixing.  Be very careful adding only 1 tsp of water at a time until the right consistency is achieved.  Not too think but not too thin.  This is a trial and error process.  Have a couple of test runs coating your cakes. using a spoon on a wire rack over a bowl.
11. As the fondant begins to harden, either warm slightly in the microwave or add another drop of water.  Use a desert spoon to ladle over the icing it will smooth out as it slides down.  If the layer is too thin wait til it dries a little then apply a second coat.
12. You can then place little icing flowers, cachou balls or other decorations on the top. 

I really hope you like these, yes they are fiddly but a few little gorgeous ones go a long way and they really are very pretty on a plate.

Enjoy

Lx