Serves: 12

Ingredients:

For the sponge mix

• 5 eggs
• 250g sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
• 70g plain flour
• 90g corn starch
• 50g melted butter
• Salt
• Zest of half a lemon
• 150g apricot jelly (for the filling)
• 6cl rum
• 200ml freshly squeezed orange juice
• Zest of one orange
• Apricot jelly (pureed and sieved, to coat the sponge)
• Cooking chocolate (as required, to garnish)

For the glaze

• 300g fondant
• Juice of half a lemon
• 3 tbsp cherry juice (reduce until thick, or use pink food dye)

Preparation:

To make the sponge, mix 150 g of the sugar with the vanilla sugar, a pinch of salt, the lemon zest and the eggs, and beat until fluffy. Sieve the flour and the corn starch into the mixture and fold in gently. Stir in the melted butter, and spread about a third of the mixture onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, so that it is about 3 mm thick. Then bake in a fan-assisted oven, preheated to 220°C, for 8-10 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Bake the rest of the mixture in a 24 cm cake ring lined with greaseproof paper (or a greased springform pan) and bake at 170°C for approx. 15 minutes. Set to one side and leave to cool a little.

For the filling, cut the sponge base into 1x1 cm cubes. Mix the apricot jelly with the rum, orange juice, orange zest and the rest of the sugar. Bring to the boil and allow to cool. Carefully pour over the sponge cubes and mix gently before leaving to stand for half an hour until the mixture has a doughy consistency. In the meantime, cut out 24 sponge discs each measuring approx. 3 cm in diameter from the round baked sponge, and brush with the sieved, lightly warmed apricot jelly. Then, place the pastry cutter over each disc and add about 2.5 cm of the doughy punch mixture. Press the mixture down firmly, remove the pastry cutter and cover with a second sponge disc (making 12 small cakes, or fancies, altogether). Transfer these to a glazing rack and put in the deep freeze for about an hour. Then coat with hot apricot jelly and leave to dry for around 20 minutes.

For the glazing, warm the fondant in a bain-marie to max 40°C, add the lemon juice, and the cherry juice or food dye to give it a pink hue. Allow to cool to around 30°C and pour over the cubes as quickly as possible. Add a glace cherry to each and drizzle with melted cooking chocolate. Leave to set for a minimum of 30 minutes and wrap a bow around the sides of each fondant fancy.

Recipe is taken from:

Christoph Wagner/Alexandra Winkler
The New Sacher Cookbook
ISBN: 978-3-85431-380-9
Pichler Verlag

More recipes: www.ichkoche.at