It never occurred to me how addictive Lamingtons can be until I had my first one. Having read about them in many of my baking books, I got down to actually making them for the first time only earlier this month. They are good, they are really good.
Lamingtons as fancy as they sound are actually pretty simple to make. If put in simple terms, they are squares of sponge cake, covered in chocolate sauce and then rolled in desiccated coconut.
Does this sound like a familiar combination? When I had the first bit I instantly knew it tasted really familiar but it was only a day later that I realised that it tasted a lot like the chocolate Bounty. Conclusion: If you like eating bounty, you will love eating lamingtons.
The most important part of the lamingtons is probably the sponge. The chocolate sauce is pretty simple to make and the desiccated coconut is used as-is. So effectively there are only two parts to making these beauties.
You need a good sponge that will soak in the chocolate sauce well and at the same time one that won’t get soggy or break when you dip it in the sauce. This sponge uses more than a regular number of eggs than most recipes with 6 whole eggs, but they make all the difference.
Difficulty wise? This is a very simple recipe for Lamingtons. The only effort you need to make is beating the eggs and sugar until the mixture turns pale and thick. This requires at least 6 -8 minutes and I’d say almost mandatory to use an electric cake beater. You could try using a whisk if you don’t have a beater, and I’m guessing that’s going to be a lot of time and work.
There are variations to making Lamingtons, I’ve tried what is probably the simplest kind. A popular variation would be to sandwich the cake with some raspberry jam before covering it in sauce and coconut. If you do try it this way. I’d love to hear about it.
If you like baking with coconut, you might enjoy baking this coconut cake from my old blog. Also, anyone try the apple cake I posted earlier? When you do try any of the recipes posted here, send me pictures or post them on Instagram, tagging me. See you there.
Lamingtons
Adapted from Rachel Allen’s Cake
Ingredients
For the cake
6 eggs
150 g caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1 /4 cup cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup butter, melted
200 gms desiccated coconut to decorate.
For the icing :
175 gms milk chocolate
50 gms butter
175 ml milk
200g icing sugar
50 gms cocoa
Method :
- Preheat the oven to 180 C. Butter and line the base of an 8-inch square baking tin.
- In a large bowl, place the eggs, sugar and salt. Using an electric beater, whisk this mixture for a minimum of 6 – 8 minutes, or until the mixture is light and thick.
- To test if your mixture has reached the right consistency, draw a number 8 with the whisk in your mixture. If the figure is visible for a couple of seconds, you can move on to step 4.
- Add the vanilla extract and the melted butter and whisk until just combined.
- To this, sift in the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Using a wooden spoon, fold in the flour into the egg mixture. Be patient with this, as it can take a while, but you want to retain the lightness of the mixture, so be gentle and persistent while folding in the flour slowly.
- When all the flour has been folded in, tip the mixture into your prepared tin. Bake in a preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean and dry.
- Let the cake cool while you make the sauce.
- To make the icing, roughly chop the chocolate and the butter. Place the butter, chocolate and milk in a saucepan and place over a low flame.
- Stir continuously until the chocolate and butter have melted completely. Then take it off the heat and sift in the cocoa and icing sugar and whisk to get a smooth mixture. This makes the sauce.
To assemble :
- Make sure the cake has cooled down completely before you slice it into equal-sized squares. You should be able to get about 16 squares.
- Place the coconut in a shallow bowl and put the chocolate sauce in a bowl next to it.
- Take each square, holding it between two spoons, dip it into the bowl of chocolate, making sure to cover it just enough on all sides.
- Tap off the excess and drop it into the bowl of coconut. Using a fresh spoon, sprinkle the coconut all over the square until it is well coated.
- Transfer to a tray and allow it to set.
- Repeat this with all the squares.
- Serve fresh.
