We remember Kunzle cakes and they were FAB! What about Jap cakes? They are like Kunzle cakes and are delicious too. They only seem to sell them in Scotland, in Aviemore and nearby local bakers. We buy them when we visit our daughter, who lives there. We wish they made and sold them in England where we live as the’d be top of our shopping list!
Ann & John
Found Jap fancies at Druckers tea shop in Dolphin shopping centre Poole dorset just last week…..they were a blast from the past
Comment by Peter — December 15, 2006 @ 5:29 pm
Jap Cakes were available in Salford, England in the 50′s. I used to buy them often.
Comment by Mary — May 14, 2007 @ 5:42 pm
My sister lives in Leicester and every time I go and visit her – she drags me into Druckers at Fosse Park and raves about Jap Fancies. We are also both fans of a Kunzle Showboat bringback!! Remeber eating the in the 70′s – they were wonderful
Comment by Sarah — September 26, 2007 @ 9:58 pm
Hear,hear! Another favourite, a Scottish abernethy biscuit, not the sweet uniformly shaped kind available now in packets, but a plainer, less sweet one made by Scottish co-op. Also their big thick ‘butter’ biscuits and puff cracknels. Potato scones used to be much thinner and triangular while
we had a crumpet which was also very thin (really a crepe) like a hole-y sweet pancake. They could be rolled up with a filling, usually jam. Mouth waters.
I associate Kunzle cakes with Fullers, a fashionable tearoom in Glasgow. They
also had their own make of more-ish titbits.
Comment by Jan — October 2, 2007 @ 5:04 pm
They sell them in Paul’s patisserie in eastleigh hampshire, and just found them today in reeve the bakers in winchester. Yummy!
Comment by Helen — August 30, 2008 @ 4:51 pm
I found jap cakes in a Peter’s Cake shop in Richmond, Yorkshire. Apparently they are available at branches all over the North East.
From a recipe in Mrs Beaton I had a go at making them – not with too much success but I will try again. Here’s a quick run down on the recipe:
4 oz ground almonds
4 oz castor sugar
2 eggwhites
almond essence.
6oz of butter icing
Beat the eggwhites till stiff, adding half sugar as you beat and adding few drops of almond essence. Fold in rest of sugar.
spread onto a greased baking tray 1/4inch thick.
Bake at 170C for 15 mins. Remove from oven and cut into 2″ rounds while still a little soft. Back in the oven for ten more minutes. Remmove the rings but leave the trimmings till golden brown. Crush the trimmings finely. make sandwiches of rounds with butter icing and coat top and sides. roll in crushed trimmings. Enjoy.
Comment by John Wall — November 30, 2008 @ 10:10 am
OMG I thought I was going mad looking for Jap cakes as they bring back fond memories of my childhood in Devon eating these pieces of delight. As I have now grown-up(officially only) I have moved to Salisbury and found that the bakers Reeve sells them delicious
Comment by Andie — December 13, 2008 @ 4:59 pm
Thanks so much for recipe. Can’t wait to try. As a little girl in the then Cumberland our bakers van used to come round on a Friday night and this was a big treat for us, even though we did have to share!!!
Comment by boyce joy — January 26, 2009 @ 10:54 pm
You can still buy japs at Burgers in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Comment by zoe — March 2, 2009 @ 7:16 pm
What great memories.Jap Cakes delicious, and Kunzle Cakes. I live in Canada now and actually bought Jap Cakes in Peachland in the Okanogan from a European Bakery in the main street. When ever I ask in a bakery here in Canada they think I mean Japanese cakes and give me a weird look. I loved Melting Moment. The ones I talk about came in cup cake case and were of the shortbread kind but not.Oh well at least I can just about get battenburg cake.Suzy
Comment by Susan Cytko — May 16, 2009 @ 4:53 am
Hurrah! Jap Fancy fans! So few people have heard of them. They still sell them in and around Colne, N.E. Lancashire. They came in chocolate or coffee flavour, are topped with a fondant disc of the same flavour, half a walnut, and were sold in shiny brown paper cake cases. I am a little less fond of them than I was because my cousin, knowing my fondness for them, sent me a box of four through the post and I ate the lot.I regretted it.
Comment by Anne Marie Hawkins — June 23, 2009 @ 12:31 pm
You will find Jap cakes in Whitby, Yorkshire. They are made by Bothams. Bothams have two cake shops in Whitby and one other I know of in Sleights, nr Whitby.
I love them. I usually buy a box of them and I eat them all. My husband isn’t keen on them, thank goodness!!
I think they do large ones as well as the small ones.
Comment by Judy Overton — June 30, 2009 @ 12:17 pm
Will try that recipe my daughter used to love japs they used to sell them where we live but like everything else the shop shut.
Comment by kerry — July 30, 2009 @ 6:09 pm
At last some fellow Jap cake fans! Fond memories of shopping expeditions with my mother in Norwich in the 50′s always ending with coffee and Jap Cakes at Princes tea shop! Now I know they’re not extinct (or a strange false memory from a happy childhood!) I shall search them out or have a go at making some myself.
Comment by Anne Fairey — August 23, 2009 @ 10:24 am
Jap cakes are also for sale in Filey N Yorks.We bought some Saturday. Either hazelnut or chocolate, YUMMY
Comment by jane upchurch — September 21, 2009 @ 11:56 am
I love these, went and bought seven!!! i ate them over 3 days… i totally craved these in my pregnancy!!! They are fantastic and I get them from Peters bakery and they have little circles of chocolate on the top.
yum.
Comment by sarah — September 24, 2009 @ 4:17 pm
Wow, I randomly put in jap cakes in google to see if a recipe came up. Good to see a fan club. I remember eating these by the box when I was young. Going to get my mum to try out the recipe. Fingers crossed x
Comment by mandie — October 11, 2009 @ 1:51 pm
We make Japs up at How Stean Gorge at the top of Nidderdale, near Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire. Everyone loves them and not a day goes by without people asking what they are! I never realised they had such a large fan club!!
Comment by Clare — November 4, 2009 @ 2:13 pm
My family are Anglo-Indian, moved from India to Australia late 1960′s.I was very young and all they talked about were Japanese cakes they used to get in India. As a teenager, curiosity got the better of me, I looked up one of my cook books and found a recipe. They all loved it. The delicious almond meringue, sandwiched with coffee butter cream, rolled in the ground trimmings and topped with a choc disc or nut.I’m in my fifties now and still making them.
Comment by Gloria — November 7, 2009 @ 7:30 am
I’m not the biggest fan on the planet of this confection, and my Dad (a Master Baker by trade) used to make them ’bout 20 yaers ago here in Manchester – my In-laws still talk about how they miss these delicacies, I did however treat them to some via these guys and even tho’ its mail order they did actually arrive in tact http://www.bigcake.co.uk/shop/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=9
and the in-laws were happy
Result……
Comment by Afrocookie — December 6, 2009 @ 9:27 pm
I remember my mother getting a large ‘Jap Cake’ for my birthday when I was around 7 years old. This was on the Welsh borders. The cake impressed me so much it is the only birthday of that era I can remember – and all I remember is the cake. I raved about it for decades! It was the layers of crunchy almond-flavoured biscuit interspersed with the soft creme icing that I loved so much. Most people I tell about it have never heard of Jap cakes and I was beginning to think I had remember the name incorrectly. It is delightful to discover this webpage and I am looking forward to following up the contacts – all hail and respect to the dedicated bakers who are still making them!
Comment by Laurence — December 16, 2009 @ 8:31 pm
Further to my message in September the place to buy jap cakes in Filey is called STERCHI’S in Murray Street, Filey AND THEY DO MAIL ORDER!!!!!!!
You can either telephone your order on 01723 513120 or 01723 516150
or get them on line on www. sterchis.co.uk
The web site only advertises their chocolates but you can send them a message for jap cakes and they will only charge you for the cakes plus postage – no additional charges YIPPEE……..jap cakes by post …..what are you waiting for.
Comment by jane upchurch — January 5, 2010 @ 8:56 pm
jap fancies are avalible in colwyn bay they are made by the cadwgan bakery in abergele road i buy mine at ninos cafe in rhos on sea
Comment by nino cerefice — January 17, 2010 @ 9:31 pm
I too have been looking for Japs for years. I used to get them from a shop in Fleetwood that no longer exsists and have now found them at a bakers in Cleveleys called Family Bakers. Theyr’e not quite the same as I remember them but yummy anyway.
Comment by Pam Ellis — February 5, 2010 @ 1:46 pm
I too have been looking for Japs for years. I used to get them from a shop in Fleetwood that no longer exists and have now found them at a bakers in Cleveleys called Family Bakers. Theyr’e not quite the same as I remember them but yummy anyway.
Comment by Pam Ellis — February 5, 2010 @ 1:47 pm
my best friend loved jap fancies when we were at school together in the 70′s and she is coming to visit me in London next month from Rochdale, Lancashire. I am trying to find jap fancies down here to buy in for her visit as a treat and ‘blast from the past’ but not seen any down here. I do have Mrs Beeton’s cookbook and took note of the recipe so as a last resort I will try making them. Many thanks to all who posted comments to help point the way and reassure me that I was not suffering from false memory syndrome ;0)
Comment by Diane Perrin — February 19, 2010 @ 8:52 am
hi – does anyone know anything about fullers cakes? I’ve been told they were a very very light sponge with a jam and cream (poss butter cream or fresh cream) filling with a respberry fondant topping? i’ve been asked to make one but can’t get a recipe to find out if the sponge is maderia (although i’ve been told it wasn’t as dense as madeira) or victorian or genoise! you get the picture!! they’re looking for authenticity so want this to be as accurate as possible!!!
Comment by Gill Fantaswets — April 1, 2010 @ 1:11 pm
What a relief to find this website! I really thought I was going mad as nobody I asked semed to know what jap cakes were. They are a fond childhood memory of mine and my grandma used to make them. I shall try the recipe and the next time I’m up in “God’s own land” I shall hunt around those shops!
Comment by Sheila Higgins — April 4, 2010 @ 3:26 pm
I was tempted to buy an ‘Opera’ the other day, hoping it was really a Jap in disguise. How wrong could I be? I’ve made a note of all the places that make them. Thanks for this website.
Comment by Bran Norman — May 8, 2010 @ 5:04 pm
I have loved them since I was a little girl but when I do see a recipe they seem to differ so much. I love my trips to bothoms in whitby, and The sweet shop in Filey trying to think of it’s name. But filey are not quite as nice as whitby ones. And Lewis and coopers in Northalerton used to have them. Once in a blue moon we even see them in Higinsons in Bridlington.
Comment by Donna Coop — May 21, 2010 @ 2:54 pm
My wife loves Japs and was in seventh heaven when she found they in Betty Botham shops in Whitby and we subsequently found them in Lewis and Coopers in Northalerton
Comment by Ray Arkles — June 1, 2010 @ 4:10 pm
Hi I use to get Jap Cakes from Sandersons in Mellor in Lancahire there jap cakes where wonderful But they No longer make them anymore NO DEMAND FOR THEM who are they kidding Wonder if they would give me the recipe Ihave be looking for a recipe a good one?for some time.
Comment by Anne Ashmore — June 12, 2010 @ 12:10 pm
I was so pleased to find this web site.I am now in my seventies and have spoken. to my sons about the jap cakes I used to buy from Bill the Baker when I worked in Tavistock, Devon. I am sure they thought I had lost the plot as none of them had heard of jap cakes.I hope now that I can once again taste some.
Comment by Iris McEwen — June 16, 2010 @ 2:49 pm
Hi
You can also buy Japs from Hindleys cake shops.
Comment by Yvonne — August 9, 2010 @ 2:08 pm
Thank goodness there are more like minded people – I love japs but they are becoming increasingly difficult to find. Whilst on holiday in Shropshire I came across a market stall on Shrewsbury market selling them Oh what a wonderful surprise and delight. We used to have a local shop that sold them but unfortunately it closed down to make way for a “modern” shopping centre that has been built.
Comment by Rosalind Gudgeon — August 26, 2010 @ 3:34 pm
Just when I thought that Jap Cakes were a figment of my imagination! We used to buy them from a lovely patisserie in Wimbledon Village in the late 1970s but that was the last I saw of them! Does anyone know of any bakeries that make them in the London area?
Comment by Mary-Ann — November 13, 2010 @ 3:54 pm
I just had my first jap cake…in fact a couple of mouthfuls are still to be eaten as I am making it last as long as I can. I am not a huge fan of sweet cakes and fancy pieces but was intrigued by the name when I saw these in Fitzbillies in Cambridge. I had meant to take it home to my husband but as it was getting squashed in my bag I had to liberate it!!! wow. I love it. the gooey crunchy stickiness of the biscuits with the almondy butter icing is devine.
Comment by Jackie — December 6, 2010 @ 3:39 pm
In common with many others on here, I loved Japs (from Adnams in Alton, Hampshire)when a child, so much that I had them delivered to my prep-school on special occasions. I then thought wistfully of them for forty years and occasionally asked after them at likely looking bakers. I at last discovered them, exactly as I recalled them (a rarity, this, with childhood memories) at The Bakery in Queen Street, Bude, Cornwall. They freeze admirably, so I tend to take thirty or forty home with me after each visit. The astonishing thing is that haute patisserie is now besotted with the Ispahan – the same concept albeit with less textural sublimity. But then, the Jap itself was always more patisserie -requiring far more work – than cake-making as commonly understood by English bakers. I cannot help but wonder what it origins may be.
Comment by Mark Fitzgeorge-Parker — February 21, 2011 @ 10:35 pm
Please can anyone help me, I have been deprived of my jap cakes since the local baker in Rustington West Sussex changed hands and they stopped selling them, so is there a baker in Worthing or Chichester who sell them??
Comment by pat — March 12, 2011 @ 6:57 pm
Have just returned from a stay in Forfar, Angus, Scotland. Saddler’s bakery still make jap cakes both the individual ones and the large family sized ones. So good to see that there are still good bakeries out there!!
Comment by Eleonore Hart — March 24, 2011 @ 5:44 pm
A bakery in Callander sells jap cakes. Only one i have found in Scotland.
Comment by Katie — March 25, 2011 @ 12:13 am
Oh I can’t believe, and I’m so pleased that I’ve found all these like minded souls who love Jap cakes – the coffee ones especially. I used to buy 4 in a box, on a Saturday morning with my pocket money in Stratford on Avon, in the mid – late seventies, and scoff the lot on Saturday afternoon. I was talking to my husband about them only last week, and he’d never heard of them! Does anyone know of anywhere in Shropshire that still does them?
Comment by Ursula — May 26, 2011 @ 5:27 pm
Oh how brilliant! I thought i was in the minority in remembering these wonderful cakes! My kids think I have made them up!!
My mum used to buy them for me at Knowles bakery in Penwortham but i havent heard of or seen them for over 30 years. I found them last year on a trip to Moffatt in Scotland. Anyone know where on the Fylde coast I could get them?
Comment by Liz — June 3, 2011 @ 8:23 pm
worked in a bakers shop for 22 years and they are soooooo nice!
Comment by lorraine — July 1, 2011 @ 12:00 am
I used to love these as well and haven’t seen them in many places for years. However, I was in Dartmouth yesterday and there is an old-fashioned bakery near the park, and the town museum is in the upstairs of the same building. Amongst their traditional cakes they sold chocolate jap cakes.
Comment by Kym — July 4, 2011 @ 9:29 am
Does anyone know why it’s called a Jap/Japanese Cake?
Comment by Roger Griffith — July 19, 2011 @ 8:58 pm
I am in Cape Town, South Africa, and just yesterday, my Mother and I were talking about a little confectioner in Kalk Bay, in the 1960′s. We were licking our lips at the memory of “Japs”, “Coconut Wheels”, and “Odds On” biscuits. Needless to say, I was on a mission !!! So glad to come across the “Japs” recipe, no one else knows WHAT I am talking about!!!!! lol. Do the other two, ( “Coconut Wheels”, and “Odds On” biscuits),mean anything to anyone? Also, are there any photos of “Japs” anywhere?
Comment by Marilyn — August 23, 2011 @ 12:23 pm
Jap cakes can be bought peridoially from a small on-site bakers in Wickford, Essex. (In the arcade shopping area) Problem is they only bake them periodically for some reason, so you have to keep looking in the window! They are delicious!
Comment by roxalma — October 9, 2011 @ 11:32 am
The best jap cakes in the world have been made for decades by The Kandy Bar, in Hamilton Street, Saltcoats. (On the Ayrshire coast). After fifty years, I am still a complete addict. Even though I now live in Texas, I make a yearly pilgrimage back to indulge in the Kandy Bar’s sweet jap treat!
Comment by Ike — October 17, 2011 @ 3:29 am
Jap cakes can be bought from Reeves the Bakers – we get ours from Ringwood, Hampshire. They are lush.
Comment by Julie Lee — November 11, 2011 @ 10:57 pm