Exciting opportunities

Fancie are looking for enthusiastic, smiley people who love hard work to cover over the Christmas period.

Opportunities are available in all areas of the business: Bakery, Retail and Driving.

Although full training is given, experience is preferred in all areas.

The successful applicants will have a passion for bakery, excellent customer service skills and a desire to succeed.

Full and Part time temporary positions available.

Please email a CV and covering letter to Careers@fancie.co.uk in the first instance.

Due to the high amount of CVs we receive, unfortunately we will only be able to contact those who have been successful.

Fancie. Faces

It was dark and miserable as I walked out of work. I noticed the colours had changed on the trees. No longer a glorious glowing green, but a multitude of oranges and reds, it was officially autumn. Usually I love to see the colours change, but today had officially been the day from hell, not only the day from hell but a shockingly awful week.

As I wandered home I listened to my iPod while events of the day started recalling through my mind. If only I hadn’t slept through the alarm, if only I’d had to time to answer all those emails, if I only stay awake through the 2 hour meeting, if only not spilt my lunch down my brand new top. If only everything had just gone to plan.

As I continued on my journey the sky turned black and the heavens decided to open. It was silting it down, proper pouring. With no umbrella or jacket it was the perfect end to such an unfortunate day. Dodging puddles I kept on walking, I wasn’t that far from home. All I could now think of was reaching my destination, climbing into a hot bath and relaxing all my thoughts away. Hot bath, relaxing front of the TV with a large glass of wine was my mantra through the last five minutes of speed walking up the hill.

Walking through the door of the place I called home, it was suspiciously empty. The boyfriend who usually greats me with stories of how his day been notably wasn’t around. As I looked around I all saw was a huge box left on the table with a post it tacked on the top. It simply said ‘enjoy’, as I opened the box there was the biggest Fancie cupcake sat inside, you know the ones that are usually reserved for birthdays or weddings. I had one in front of me. It was mine …ALL MINE!!

As I took it out of the box I stared the fluffy pink icing laced with hearts and bit of glitter. Carefully resting it on the worktop I couldn’t resist sticking my finger in it and licking the icing off. It was the sweetest thing I had ever tasted. Then all of a sudden I had an urge like no other, I lowered my head and flung it into the cake as if it was the softest most delicate pillow in the world. Nothing actually mattered I’d found paradise! At this point I heard the door open as I raised my head and opened my eyes and saw the boyfriend stood there staring at me like a woman gone mad. All of a sudden he walk over to me and started laughing and endearingly said ‘I’ve never seen you looking so attractive’. It was definitely the perfect end to a very imperfect day!

Jenn McCambridge- Fancie Guest Blogger.

Groupon offer

We recently ran an offer with the discount company Groupon- My City Deal for a box of 12 minis for £5 instead of £10- 50% discount.

Unfortunately, the deal was mis printed and stated that the voucher was worth £20. This has caused alot of confusion and understandably people are upset.

Groupon have issued a full explaination of their error and offered a full refund to any customers who don't wish to take up the offer.

This whole episode has been regrettable and something that was meant to be a nice treat for our customers- old and new- has backfired on us.

Rest assured we are taking steps to make this up to our customers and are grateful that those who have always supported us, still are.

As a good will gesture we have additional vouchers for all the customers who exchange their vouchers and would like to take this opportunity to apologise for any inconvenience.

The matter is now being dealt with by our solicitors.

We only went and won!!

So we attended the Eat Sheffield awards last night and were in great company. Sheffield finest food industry insiders were in attendance and Eat Sheffield put on a great evening.
The categories we really well fought out with some very deserved winners... including us!!
We scooped Best cafe/ deli and I won Sheffield's food champion. Both were absolutely amazing but the Food Champion accolade is utterly gobsmacking- what a title!!

Thanks Eat Sheffield and in particular Niki Baker- such a fantastic evening, all your hard work paid off!!

See the full list of winners here http://www.eatsheffield.com/Restaurant_Awards/

Sheffield Food Champion
Sponsored by Sheffield Unleashed

Winner: Amanda Perry
"Quite apart from running a successful business, Amanda has shown a real dedication to supporting Sheffield food as well as promoting entrepreneurship in the city. Her work with Sheffield College and Entrepreneurs Exchange demonstrate her enthusiasm for inspiring the next generation of food businesses, and indeed businesses in general. It was Amanda who saw the potential opportunities and benefits of getting a group together to discuss promoting Sheffield food, an idea that could result in a higher profile for and better appreciation of Sheffield food producers. She is without doubt a Food Hero."

Guest Blogging

So, I was recently asked to do a guest blog article for The Culture Vulture blog which is Leeds and Sheffield's oracle on all things Cultural, from the Arts and Theatre to Food and Discussion, this is the site you need to know.

Here is our little piece, hope you like it!

Allow me to introduce myself; I am Amanda Perry, Owner, Founder and devotee of Fancie. in Sheffield.

I first decided to rekindle the baking skills I had finely honed in some of the best kitchens throughout the UK in December 2007. Whilst at my parents over the Christmas period, I looked around at all the various boxes of chocolates that had been left by well wishers and family members and became slightly daunted at the variety on offer.

Buying a box of sparkly, foil wrapped chocolates had become as second nature to the average consumer as a bottle of bubbly. So why wasn’t that the case with cake?

And so I set out creating a ‘box of cakes’ at home in my kitchen. I managed through trial and error, to make a selection of miniature versions of British classics - Victoria Sandwich, Coffee, and Lemon - all moist and as fresh as if they were from your Grannies tea tray.

Next, I had to think of it from a commercial angle - if this were to be a feasible business (I must have been watching too much Dragons Den at the time!) then I would need to make the cakes a lot less fiddly in order to accommodate volume sales. And so I arrived at cupcakes - the perfect solution. A compact, individual cake that could encapsulate any flavour, colour or style combo your heart could possibly desire! It was so obvious - so why was no one else doing it?...... Little did I know that at the very same moment, SJP, Kim Cattrall et al. were hitting the big screen devouring the very same thing from the little known Magnolia bakery in NYC - and so began ‘Cupcake Britain’!

You can barely mention the word Farmers market these days before you hear the donning of pinnies across the country as the world and his wife start thumbing through cupcake recipe books. So what makes Fancie. different?

Well, for a start in the 18 months we have been trading in earnest, we have opened three shops and number four is on it’s way (watch this space). Fancie. is a brand, but what use is a brand without a decent product - style without substance, or, all fur coat and no knickers, if you will.

With my bakery training in a variety of top pastry kitchens combined with my passion for baking and uncompromising eye for detail - nothing is missed. OK, so I’m not saying we haven’t had complaints. ‘Dry’ cake seems to be the scourge of the 21st century, and of course, taste is entirely subjective. However, whether it’s a wedding, corporate event, party or just tea and cake in the shop - we are never short of crumbs flying from the mouths of our customers as they lavish praise on our mini (or not so mini) creations.

They helped Nick Clegg through Election Day; Eric Clapton sent his daughter a box for her birthday and Paloma Faith enjoyed hers so much, she ordered some for her guitarist’s birthday. We have been featured on the BBC, Channel 4, in Vogue Magazine as well as the Guardian.... I could go on but that would make me sound like a media crazy name dropper - when all we are really interested in is real, freshly baked, lip smackingly good CAKE.

It’s exciting times for Fancie. and we are continuing to grow. We have lots planned for the next 12 months, so - stay tuned, keep enjoying our mini masterpieces and watch this space!

Find us at:

Fancie.| Sharrowvale Road

Fancie.| The Winter Garden

Fancie.| Sheffield Student Union

www.fancie.co.uk

Happy Birthday Meadowhall!

We were delighted to be part of Meadowhall's 20th Birthday celebrations this weekend.

The Fancie. roller Girls took to the malls with 2,000 mini cupcakes to give away- and boy, did they give them away. The cakes lasted little over 2 hours and put smiles on many a shoppers face!

Special thanks to The Leeds Roller Dolls!

Drum roll please...

Ok.... so after much teasing we are delighted to announce the location of one of our new shops!

We are absolutely over the moon to be taking up residence at Sheffield Uni Studen Union! Yes, nestled away under the new golden arches of then SU you will find our delightful cakes and friendly faces ready to serve you Teapigs Tea, Fresh Coffee and of course, cakes!!

Are you excited?? We are!