2015 Cooking Club Week 3: Lamingtons

With Australia day falling in the same week my cooking club recipe is due, I had to post a recipe from my home country. Every year for Australia day I make Lamingtons for everyone at work so it was a no-brainer as to what I was going to do for the Cooking club. Although this recipe is so easy it probably shouldn't even be in a cooking club It's a great one to make with the kids if you have any, or if you need to make something for a cake sale, fundraising event etc.

The origins of Lamingtons are a little unclear but according to Wikipedia they were named after Lord Lamington, Governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901. One story of their orgins are Lamington's chef was called upon at short notice to provide something to feed unexpected guests during the busy period leading up to Federation in 1901. Apparently the chef cut up some left-over French vanilla sponge cake baked the day before, dipped the slices in chocolate and set them in coconut. Lady Lamington's guests then asked for the recipe. Another alternative claim is that Lord Lamington's cook, accidentally dropped a block of sponge cake into a dish of chocolate. It was later discovered that desiccated coconut, sprinkled over the top, made the cakes more appealing. Lord Lamington himself though apparently didn't like them

After that history lesson (thanks Wikipedia!), here is how you make them...

Ingredients
- Packet Sponge Cake mix
- Egg
- Water
- Cocoa
- Dessicated Coconut
- Butter
- Boilng Water



Yes, i make them with a packet sponge cake mix...told you it shouldn't be in a cooking club If you really want to, you can use any plain sponge cake recipe, but honestly the packet sponge cake is perfectly fine for this recipe. I actually have people every year asking me how I make them.

Make up the sponge cake according to the instructions on the packet. I use the Tesco one which just requires an egg and 75ml of water.

Line a rectangle brownie tin with baking paper and grease the paper otherwise the cake will stick to the paper. Bake according to packet instructions.

When the cake has cooled, cut it into pieces about 5 x 5cm. Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood would have a fit if they saw mine though (that's if they haven't already fainted at the sight of the packet mix)...I prefer the rustic look over precision.

Ideally, you now need a little patience as it's much easier to decorate them when they are frozen. So if you have patience, put the cut-up pieces of cake into a container and freeze overnight. If you have more than one layer of cake in your container, place a sheet of baking or greaseproof paper between the two layers to make it easier the next day. If you don't have any patience, go ahead and make your icing.

Icing
It will depend on how many lamingtons you are making (I used 3 packets of sponge mixso need a lot of icing) but one recipe for icing I saw has the following so you can use that as a basis...
3 1/2 cups of icing sugar
1/4 cup of cocoa
1 tbs butter
boiling water.

The trickiest thing here is getting the consistency of the icing correct. You want it to be pretty runny but not dripping runny. You'll know after icing the first cake if you need it thicker or thinner. Add icing or water as needed. The icing will also harden pretty quickly, so keep the kettle with boiling water close by as you'll need it to thin out the icing again.

Put coconut into a bowl or on a plate and have your cake rake nearby with a sheet of paper underneath to make clean up easier.

Production line:


Drip your piece of cake into the icing mixture and make sure all 4 sides are throughly coated. Some people use a fork, but I just use my fingers, even though it's a messy job Then drop the chocolate coated cake into the coconut and again make sure all four sides are well coated and then transfer to the cake rake to set. Continue until all pieces of cake are done.

The lamingtons will keep for about 3 days.

Yum...


There are some variations of lamingtons - some people like to cut them in half before coating them and putting a layer of jam and/or jam & cream and then coating in chocolate & coconut, but I think original is best