Lamingtons

Cricket, Midnight Oil, Aussie Rules and barracking for the Roos, Cold Chisel, Vic Bitter, Meat Pies n a can o'coke, Salt and Vinegar chips.......

These are some of the things I experienced and that now form extremely fond memories from the time I was a student in Australia. Yeah, in many ways, I was a True Blue Dinky-Di Aussie!

Something else that I used to thoroughly enjoy were Lamingtons. You could say that this is something typically and uniquely Aussie as I have never found it anywhere else. Some even go so far as to claim the Lamington as Australia's National Cake.

A Lamington is basically a small cube of white sponge that is coated in chocolate icing and then covered in dessicated coconut. Some versions are filled with cream or strawberry jam. In my uni days, I always loved Lamingtons and used to frequently pop down to the nearby Milk Bar (local mini grocery store) to pick up a lamington or two to stuff my face with.




Recently, a relation brought some lamingtons down from Oz and my son declared that he liked them - a lot! So..... I decided I would try to make them. After all, not only do the two of us like Lamingtons, the lovely wife likes them as well.

I used the lamington recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly Old Fashioned Favourites. It goes like this

Ingredients:
6 eggs
2/3 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup cornflour
1/2 cup plain flour
1/3 cup self raising flour

4 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
15 g butter, melted
1 cup milk
2 cups dessicated coconut.

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C. Grease 20cm x30cm Lamington pan. Line with baking paper, extending paper 5 cm over long sides.
Beat eggs with electric mixer for about 10 minutes till thick and creamy. Beat in the sugar, dissoliving between additions. Fold in triple sifted flours.
Spread mixture evenly into pan. Bake for about 35 mintues. Turn cake immediately ontoa baking paper covered wire rack to cool.
Meanwhile make icing. Sift icing sugar and cocoainto medium heatproof bowl. Stir in melted butter and milk. Set bowl over medium saucepan of simmering water. Stir until icing is of coating consistency.
Cut cake into 16 pieaces. Dip each square in icing. Drain off excess. Toss the squares in coconut. Place lamingtons on wire rack to set.


The cake turned out fairly well although I felt it was a little bit too airy. The lamingtons I am used to have a firmer, less airy texture. Perhaps I didn't fold the flour in quick and smoothly enough.

The icing was also a little runny and it was kind of hard to coat the cake pieces with it. However, it seemed to set up nicely and looked fine once the coconut covered the cake.

It tasted pretty yummy though! I still think I prefer the lamingtons I used to get at the milk bar but for a first attempt, this was pretty darn good! Michael liked it too so all in all, I consider this a success.



.....I loved my time Down Under, but one thing I never, ever liked was Vegemite - and that's Fair Dinkum mate!