English Fancy
About this build
A large square sponge topped with a dome of sweetened whipped cream, covered in pink icing and finished with white stripes.
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What the original account establishes
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- A first pimp, chosen because a French Fancy could look great or make the makers look like fools. More than enough ingredients were bought, about £8 in all, but the text gives no quantities. A basic sponge recipe was adjusted to fit large cake tins and made in two batches to reach the height, each taking about 45mins to bake. The filling was whipped cream with icing sugar, chosen over butter cream because Mr Kipling’s packaging does not mention butter cream. The cooled cakes were assembled, the cream domed on top before it could melt, and the cake chilled while the icing was made; the icing ran a little until fridge time fixed it, and the trademark lines were added to the top and sides. Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3 · Source 4 · Source 5 · Source 6 · Source 7
Notes from the contributor
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We bought more than enough raw ingredients, just to be sure, plus nobody likes to be caught short. Final estimated cost is about £8.
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The original account
The hardest part was always deciding what snack to pimp. As it was our first
pimp we didn’t want to go overboard yet we still wanted to test ourselves
and our baking prowess. We finally came to settle on a French Fancy as it
had the potential to look great but also make us look like fools if we
messed up.
We bought more than enough raw ingredients, just to be sure, plus nobody
likes to be caught short. Final estimated cost is about £8.
First step was to make the sponge, we just used a basic sponge recipe
which we adjusted in order to fit our large cake tins. We made two batches
in order to reach the required height; each batch took about 45mins to bake
so there was a lot of hanging about.
Meanwhile, we made the creamy filling. We decided to whip up some cream
and add icing sugar in order to get as close a match to the real thing as
possible. We decided against a butter cream filling as Mr. Kipling makes no
mention of this on his packaging .
Once the cakes had cooled we assembled them to create the desired structure.
Next the filling was placed on top in the best dome shape we could manage
before the cream started to melt. It then went into the fridge while we made
the icing.
After a few trials and tribulations we finally got as close as match as we
thought possible. So the next stage was to ice the cake. This wasn’t as
difficult as I thought it would be, though the icing did have a tendency to
run a little, nothing that a little fridge time didn’t fix.
Once the icing had set we only had to add the trademark lines of icing to
the top and sides to get that authentic French Fancy look. There was a
moment of madness when someone suggested we make another five of varying
colours in order to get the full set. Needless to say that person was shown
the door. Though it is always a possibility in the future.
And here of course is the obligatory cross – section.
