Fancy yourself?

On Easter Saturday I got into the mood for making some sweets that are popular at this time of year. Therefore I decided to make some fancies with a Simnel Cake to follow on Easter Sunday. I selected U2's 1987 blockbuster the Joshua Tree as the soundtrack for the afternoon's baking. U2 are a band that somehow have become huge despite basing almost every song they have produced on David Bowie's 1977 hit single "Heroes". Still 150 million people who go back time after time to buy their records can't be wrong can they?

Having selected a suitable album to listen to I got hold of a 20cm x 20cm baking tray that was 5cm deep and greased it with margarine and then a bit of flour. I then measured out four ounces of caster sugar and four ounces of margarine and mixed them together in a bowl with a wooden spoon until the sugar had made the butter fluffy like cotton wool.

I then cracked two eggs in a bowl and whisked them together. I next added half the egg mixture to the butter and sugar and stirred them together. In order to stop the ingredients becoming overly sloppy I added two ounces of self-raising flour into the mix. I then added the rest of the egg mixture and a further two ounces of self-raising flour to the bowl and exercised the muscles in my right arm to combine the ingredients thoroughly with a wooden spoon.

Once the mixture was thickened I poured it into the baking tray and cooked it for 25 minutes on 170 degrees (180 for non-fan ovens). I was able to check the sponge I had created was cooked properly as I pressed my finger into it and it instantly sprung back into position like a mattress when someone gets up suddenly from it. Cooking sponge is not an exact science and sometimes you made to cook this recipe for 30 minutes depending on your oven in order to be sure the sponge is not runny in the middle and under- cooked.

After the sponge had cooled I put four ounces of icing sugar into a bowl and mixed them with three tablespoons of hot water. Once the ingredients were mixed I cut the sponge into nine equal pieces and covered the first three with the icing sugar which was at this point white. I stuck two pieces of dolly mixture on top of the icing to decorate. I then added a few drops of red food colouring to icing sugar remaining in the bowl and then covered the remaining pieces of sponge it and some more dolly mixture.

The fancies proved to be a big hit that evening at my friend's house and went well with a cup of tea and also a can or two of Stella Artois according to one of school friends who sampled some of them with his lager of choice.