Lamingtons

Australia Day has come and gone. Here in Aussie Land my car was all decorated with 4 small Australian flags that flapped in the breeze as we drove along. Rather nosily mind you. My kids were decorated with Australian flag tattoos, well only just one tattoo each. Apart from the car that was embracing the Australian spirit, I decided that my family's stomachs should ingest something rather Australian too. The lamington was the choice of the day.

Now some history on the lamington. I read a few differing versions of historical facts about the origins of the lamington.They all center around Lord Lamington. One was that a maid-servant accidentally dropped sponge cake in melted chocolate and the covering up in coconut was to avoid messy fingers. One version was created for unexpected guests by Lord Lamington chef. Another version was that they were meant to resemble homburg hats which Lord Lamington had he favored. Here is the link from which this information was obtained from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamington.

Below is the recipe of the basic lamington with no cream, jam, caramel filling. I have forgotten how good they taste. I love coconut in any form of cooking. In fact I like it also in hand cream, soaps, body scrubs, shampoo. I just think the smell and taste of it cannot be beaten but that is a personal choice. 

The ingredients

The Cake 

125g butter, softened 

¾ cup caster sugar

 2 eggs, slightly beaten 

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

2 cups self raising flour 

Pinch of salt 

½ cup of milk

The chocolate icing

 

3 tablespoons cocoa 

3 cups icing sugar 

½ teaspoon butter 

boiling water

Desiccated coconut

The method

Line a 17 by 28 cm baking tray with baking paper.

Cream the butter and gradually add the sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, vanilla extract and beat the mixture until combined.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Sift the flour and salt.

Gently fold the flour and salt into the creamed butter mixture alternating with the milk.

Place the cake mixture into the baking tray and into the oven for about 30 minutes.

When done allow the cake to cool on a wire rack and then cut it into your desired shapes. 

With the chocolate coating, mix all the ingredients except for the coconut, in a bowl. Add water until the mixture is runny but thick. The recipe that I was using stated 5 tablespoons. Me no thinks so. That is no where near enough. In a separate shallow plate place the desiccated coconut. Dip each piece of cake firstly into the chocolate coating and then into the coconut.

There you have it, lamingtons.