If I was choosing a cake at a bakery or a cake shop, I am not sure that I would choose a lamington. I love cream with a passion, but shop bought lamingtons never seem to have a great cream to cake ratio for me.
Last week I had half a bottle of cream in the fridge and felt inspired to make some sort of cream cake. I have never made lamingtons before and thought I would give them a try. For those readers who don’t know what lamingtons are, they are an Australasian (NZ and Australia) creation from what I can gather – pieces of sponge cake dipped in either a chocolate or raspberry syrup, rolled in coconut and preferably filled with lots of whipped cream.
Often home made lamingtons are actually made with shop bought sponge. I (of course) wanted to make everything from scratch, so turned to the recipe for lamingtons from my favourite kiwi baking book, Ladies, A Plate. The sponge was a very easy two egg sponge, baked in a square 20cm pan. You then leave the sponge to cool, cut into squares, freeze (to stop the cake crumbing as you dip) and then dip firstly in your chosen syrup and then secondly in coconut. Even though I am huge fan of chocolate, I prefer raspberry lamingtons, as I often find the chocolate syrup too strong. Raspberry lamington syrup is easily made by making a packet raspberry jelly and leaving to semi set until it is the consistency of egg white. This was so much easier than I thought. You could actually use any flavour jelly you want, but raspberry is traditional.
I filled the lamingtons with a generous amount of whipped cream (flavoured with vanilla and icing sugar), topped with little icing flowers to make them look pretty and took them into work for morning tea where they were greatly appreciated.
Raspberry lamingtons (from Ladies, A Plate)
115g butter
150g castor sugar
2 eggs
180g flour
1 tsp baking powder
115ml milk
1 tsp vanilla
• Cream butter and sugar, then add in eggs one at a time
• Combine flour with baking powder and milk with vanilla
• Mix alternately the flour mixture and milk mixture into the creamed mixture
• Spread into a 20cm square lined tin and bake at 180c for 20 minutes
• Once cold, cut into squares, freeze for about 15 minutes, then dip each square into jelly made as per the packet instructions, but only set partially until it is the consistency of egg white
• Once dipped in jelly, dip in coconut and leave to set
• Serve filled with whipped cream
10 comments:
Wow, congratulations! How exciting for you. Your segment looks great and the hosts seem very nice.
The bavarian cream looks wonderfully light and delish!
I love raspberry lamingtons ! In fact I have a line of ceramic chocolate and raspberry lamingtons making their way across the kitchen wall into the dining area,in the manner of ducks flying.People do a double take and crack up laughing.
love this post - brings back lovely memories of my years in wellington
in fact, all your sweets bring back good memories of life in nz, and i am dying to make some of sweets you have shared on your blog - a friend brought me some golden syrup, so i cant wait to start making things like beligian biscuits, caramel and ginger slices and gingernuts (difficult to choose sometimes!)
oh I love these and you surely made them look so nice.
Chocolate lamingtons are my favourite, but I must say, your raspberry ones sure look fantastic.. I would buy one of it was in a shop...
Wow, those look amazing! I've got to give these a try!
I've not heard of a lamington before, but you've got me interested! They sound tasty, and they're so pretty, too!
These are such cute lamingtons with their pink covering and flower tops - lucky colleagues!
I have been regularly checking out your blog after following a link from food lovers forum some time ago, I always enjoy reading about your creations, recommendations and thoughtful commentary. Infact you inspired me to make your chocolate caramel 'tan' square yesterday so we have a slab sitting for weekend treats :) its yummo. I love baking as well and am really enjoying Ladies a Plate I think I might try the sugar buns (friendly road buns) this weekend. Thanks for your regular updates, by the way I'll be in for a copy of your first recipe book :) until now I will keep up with your blog. Lurking out :) Paula
i miss lamingtons!! i will have to make them for us at home!
Post a Comment