Lamingtons - how Australian can you get?
This is going to be a very quick one because it's all been done before, There is even an 'official' website for the Lamington.
So why Lamington's? It's not Australia Day after all, which is when they come into their own, such is its importance in the Australian psyche. Well, my daughter-in-law dropped by with some, thinking that our Scottish friends would be here and they could be introduced to this national treat. Alas they weren't here, but we shall have them as dessert this evening.
Basically it's a sponge cake, cut into small pieces, and then coated in chocolate and desiccated coconut. The most usual variations are to sandwich the cake with raspberry jam and/or cream, or to coat the cake in raspberry jam before the chocolate. I've never made them, but I have tasted them. I gather the trick is to keep the cake moist, and not to cover the kitchen with chocolate and coconut. I can imagine it must get messy - and therefore fun to make with the kids.
Why is it called a Lamington? There are a couple of variations on a theme but basically they are named after Lord Lamington a one-time governor of Queensland. As an aside he had the most wonderful name - Charles Wallace Alexander Napier Cochrane-Baillie. Now how amazingly aristocratic British is that? Origin story number one is that he had too many guests and his French chef, Armand Galland, had to produce something fast. So in the French tradition he coated some leftover sponge cake in chocolate ganache, and inspired by his Tahitian wife he then coated the chocolate in coconut - not commonly used at the time. The variation is that a maid (or the chef) dropped a sponge cake coated in chocolate on the floor and retrieved the situation by coating this in coconut. I think I go for the first story. The New Zealanders once claimed the origin, but I think this was an April Fool's Day joke. Can you tell who is the Lord and who is the chef? Only joking.
Lamingtons are a very traditional Australian cake much loved by the Country Women's Association and the Royal Shows that take place around the country. Huge versions are made at festivals and fetes. There are lamington competitions and lamington variations.
Donna Hay has a recipe for the classic version. Dan Lepard, celebrity chef has a double chocolate version, which was greeted with horror by the purists, but which looks pretty nice.
My recipe database has a recipe from Valli Little of delicious for marshmallow lamingtons - which are not really lamingtons at all - just marshmallows coated in chocolate and coconut and there is also one from Jill Dupleix for frozen lamingtons with raspberries which is really a kind of ice-cream.
People get all hot under the collar about how to make lamingtons and what they should be like, so, not being Australian, I won't buy into the controversy. I shall just enjoy the ones I have been given. Thanks Dionne.
