Fancies Allsorts

My Gran always warned us about hanging washing outside on Good Friday. Apparently it's bad luck because of what Christians believe happened on Good Friday and therefore could mean that hanging washing outside could lead to the death of someone close to you. Fortunately for me my washing remained hidden inside the house. Hopefully that meant I had dodged a bullet. 

One activity that isn't frowned upon on Good Friday however is baking and in my case during this Good Friday some Fancies. I put a twist on the traditional approach to preparing Fancies, that usually involves putting Dolly Mixture Sweets atop the cakes, by decorating mine with Liquorice Allsorts. 

As the late April Sun slow cooked the Chilli Plants in the conservatory, I commenced work on the Fancies. On the player was Rush's excellent live album "Snakes and Arrows Live". I was lucky enough to see the band on the UK Leg of the tour this record was culled from with two people who've had a very positive influence on my life. There's something about the rhythm and feel of Rush's music that tends to make me push hard to produce quality food and this cooking project was no exception to that rule. 

The ingredients for this recipe were: 

For the Cake Mix

175 grams of Unsalted Butter.
175 grams of Brown Sugar.
175 grams of Self- Raising Flour. 
3 beaten Eggs. 

For the topping

525 grams of Icing Sugar.
5 tablespoons of Warm Water.
Some food colouring.
Various Liquorice Allsorts. 

The method for this recipe is:

1. Cream the Butter and Brown Sugar until it is fluffy. 

2. Gradually mix in the beaten Eggs until you have a thick paste. 

3. Stir in the Self-Raising Flour until you have a thick paste mixture.

4. Grease 12 Bun Cases and distribute the mixture equally between each bun case. Add the bun cases to a baking tray with 12 spaces for the Bun Cases. 

5. Cook in the top shelf of the oven on Gas Mark 5 (or 190 degrees) for 35 minutes. 

6. Remove from the oven and cool in the fridge for an hour. 

7. Make the topping by sieving the Icing Sugar into a bowl and gradually stirring in the water and no more than three tablespoons of food colouring. This should result in a thick paste. 

8. Once the cakes have cooled spread the Icing evenly over each of them and top them with a Liquorice Allsort of your choice. 

9. Return to the fridge to allow the Icing to solidify and when ready to eat remove from the fridge and allow to warm up at room temperature for about 30 minutes. 


These alternate take on Fancies proved popular both with a good friend, and intellectual giant, when he consumed one after we'd conquered a challenging local mountain on Easter Saturday. While another visitor enjoyed one with a strong glass of pale ale after an evening shift at work. 

They were tasteful cakes for a tasteful and extremely memorable Easter Bank Holiday. 

Two of the Fancies made a delicious late night snack accompanied by some strong Pale Ale.