The Lamington

A famous Aussie treat. A favorite dessert of most Australian children and full of nostalgic goodness for most Australian adults.

Remember my first Aussie Lamington experience in the Sydney airport.... mmm... I sure do!

Well it was time to relive it, again. I made Lammies for our Bible study/small group a few weeks after we returned, but I had also promised my co-workers in Pendleton that I'd make them something delicious from Australia. One of those co-workers' husband is from Australia, so she's really excited to take one home to him. She said he's always talking about Lamington... yep, he's an Aussie.

. : : : .

Step One: line your cake pans. Normally you'd use a square or rectangular pan, but my rectangular pan isn't very deep, and Lammies should be cubes. So I used these deeper round cake pans and plan to waste a little. To line, I just use parchment paper cut to fit the bottom and use no-stick spray lightly around the pan before putting the paper in (helps keep the paper in place).

Step Two: Mix your cake ingredients. This recipe is so simple that after looking at a handful of variations, discovering they're all about the same and then making it twice, I pretty much have it memorized. I tried two different recipes and determined that this combination made the best cake.

• 2 C Flour
• 3/4 C Sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup (one stick) of room temp butter (plus 1 TBSP for extra moist cake)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla

Now, I don't care how you do this. I just throw it all in a bowl and mix it up by hand. However, a professional baker would say to cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs one at a time and stir until each is incorporated and then add the vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, soda, powder and salt. Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until just incorporated and most of the lumps are out.

Step Three: Pour your batter into the prepared cake pans. *This recipe only filled one cake pan, beware that you may end up making a double batch like I did. In that case, repeat step two.

Step Four: Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, check to see if it is done with a toothpick and keep checking every 2 minutes until the toothpick comes out clean (please excuse my dirty baking stone).

Step Five: Cool cakes. Again, a professional baker would say to cool the cakes in the pan for 5 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack. I, however, don't have a cooling rack, so I just leave them in the pan until they're cool.

Step Six: Cover with plastic once they're cool and let the cake sit overnight to get a little stale. This helps it hold it's shape when you are dipping it in the icing. Easiest step ever! You can refrigerate the cake.. but if your refrigerator is full of lunch food, then they can sit on the counter.

. : The Next Day : .

Step Seven: Make the frosting. Measure out the following ingredients and sift into a bowl (sifting is actually recommended here, as cocoa powder and powdered sugar tend to have lumps):

• 450 grams of icing sugar, confectioner's sugar, or powdered sugar.
• 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 tsp of instant espresso powder (optional) **I always add this with chocolate, it makes the chocolate pop. 

Measure these ingredients into a saucepan or microwave safe bowl and heat until just bubbling around the rim, but not boiling. 

• 1/2 cup of milk
• 1 TBSP of butter

Mix the warm milk/butter with the sugar/cocoa/espresso until it is smooth. This may take awhile. If it is a bit too thick, add some more milk, one TBSP at a time, until it is between a nectar and a honey consistency. You want it to be thick enough to stick, but not so thick that it gums up on the cake. 

Step Eight: While you are waiting for the milk/butter to get hot, or after if you just read this step - pour 2-3 cups of dessicated coconut into a shallow bowl. You'll need to refill it as you go.

I'm not going to lie. This ingredient was hard to find. I couldn't find it in our town(s) and ended up trying two solutions. One: order it online, often called unsweetened coconut powder and fine flaked macaroon coconut. Two: use easy to find, regular sweetened coconut in one of the following stages: straight out of the bag, toasted in the oven, toasted and blended/food processed to be fine flakes. Toasting and processing will get you the closest to the original. Either way, it'll taste good, just not be as authentic. I will say, that the unsweetened fine flaked coconut made a difference because of the contrast to the sweet chocolate and cake. It's also a lot drier than the sweetened coconut, which is why toasting that type helps.

Step Nine: Cut up your cake into squares. If you made a square or rectangle cake, then this should be easy. One of the main characteristics of a Lamington is that they are square cubes. Trim as needed to make them square-ish and to cut off any dry edges. 

Step Ten: Dip the cake cubes into the icing. Make sure they get covered on all sides. Lift them out with a fork and scrape the drips with a knife or your fingers. If you are a 'use your fingers' type of cook, I found that if you keep two fingers iced on one hand and two fingers coconutty on the other hand, you can get the job done efficiently. I tried a few different methods and found the fork/knife method to work best for me.

Step Eleven: Drop the iced cake square into the coconut bowl. Toss coconut up onto the sides to coat and gently roll to get all sides. 

Step Twelve: Place coconut covered iced cake cubes on a cooling rack or a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. 

Repeat steps 10-12 until all cake cubes are done. Before you know it, you'll be running out of coconut and frosting and soon after your cake cubes will disappear too. All you'll be left with is a tray of Lamingtons!

These are reportedly good for up to five days at room temp, covered with plastic. I have yet to see them last five days though. 

Enjoy!