I'm sitting here at my desk staring out of my window at the blanket of snow covering everything and my mind just wandered back to this time last year, when I was sunning myself silly in Sydney, Australia. I was also stuffing my face full of Lamingtons.
If you've never had Lamingtons before, you're in for a treat. These beauties are the simplest things to make, and are just pure comfort food, right up there with blueberry muffins and brownies. Tested on real Australians, this recipe turns out to be a definite winner.
Lamingtons are made from sponge cake, dunked in chocolate sauce, then tossed through dessicated coconut. The flavour and texture combinations are simply lovely. I remember the first Lamington I had, I just kept thinking: 'Wow! Nom. Nom. What. Nom. Is. Nom. Nom. This?'
For an extra decadent Lamington, cut in half and add a layer (or two, or three) of crème pâtissière.
No Australians were harmed during the making of these Lamingtons.
Lamingtons (for a printable version of this recipe, click HERE)
For the sponge cake:
200g (roughly 1 1/2 cups) plain flour
225g (roughly 1 cup) caster sugar
7 eggs
80g (1/3 cup) melted butter
For the coating:
200g (roughly 2 cups) dessicated coconut
400g (roughly 3 1/4 cups) icing sugar
115g (1 cup) cocoa powder
100g (slightly less than half a cup) melted butter
100ml (slightly less than half a cup) hot water
1. Preheat oven to 180˚C. Whisk eggs and sugar with an electric mixer for about 10 minutes until light and fluffy.
2. Add the flour and fold through. Gently fold through the melted butter.
3. Line the base of a rectangular 30cm (12in) cake tin with baking paper, pour the batter into the tin and bake for 30-40 minutes. To check if the cake is ready, stick a metal skewer into the middle of the cake. If the skewer comes out clean, the cake is ready.
4. Cool on a wire rack. Once cool, cut off all the edges and crusts. Cut this into roughly 8cm cubes, or whatever size you'd like your Lamingtons to be.
5. Whisk the icing sugar, cocoa powder and hot water together in a bowl. Fold in the melted butter.
6. Dip all sides of the sponge cubes into the chocolate mixture and then toss the cubes through dessicated coconut to cover. Allow to harden on a wire rack, then refrigerate to fully solidify.
