A Classic Lamington Recipe -

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In the latest issue of ele Magazine ‘The Australia Edition’, we create a unique and iconic Australian cake, the Lamington. The Lamington is a piece of butter cake dipped in chocolate icing and rolled in coconut. It is great at any time of the year, either jam-filled or plain.

Recipe and Images by Jo O’Keefe for ele Magazine.

Ingredients

For the cake squares

185g (1 ¼ cup) plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

40g (⅓ cup) cornflour

20g unsalted butter, softened

230g caster sugar(superfine sugar)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 eggs

125ml (½ cup) full cream milk

For the chocolate icing

500g (3 ⅔ cup) icing sugar sifted

200g dark chocolate

15g (1 tablespoon) unsalted butter

125ml (½ cup) milk, plus more

325g dessicated coconut (shredded coconut)

Method

For the cake

1. Make sure that the butter, eggs and milk are at room temperature.

2. Preheat the oven to 175C.

3. Butter a 23x 23 cm baking tin, and line the bottom with greaseproof paper.

4. Sift the flour, baking powder and cornflour into the bowl of an electric stand mixer.

5. Add the butter, sugar, vanilla, eggs and milk. Beat on low speed until all of the ingredients are incorporated. At this stage, the mixture might look a bit curdled. Increase the speed to high until the mixture has slightly increased in volume. You should have a thick, pale yellow mixture.

6. Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking tin and bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

7. Leave the cake in the tin to cool a little before turning out onto a wire rack to cool, with the bottom of the cake facing upwards to help level the cake. This cake is best made the day before you cut it up and ice.

8. Using a serrated knife cut the sponge into bitesize squares, or whatever size you like.

For the chocolate icing

1. Melt the butter and chocolate over low heat in a bain-marie (or a bowl over a pan of simmering water).

2. Add the icing sugar and whisk in the milk until you have a thick, but slightly runny, mixture. The icing needs to be thick enough to coat the cakes, but runny enough to only leave a light coating.

To assemble

1. Pour the desiccated coconut onto a large plate.

2. Using two forks, dip a piece of sponge into the chocolate icing mixture, making sure that all sides are coated, and allow any excess icing to drip off.

3. Then roll the chocolate-coated sponge in the desiccated coconut, and place the lamington on a wire rack to dry.

4. Repeat with the remaining sponge pieces.

5. If the icing mixture becomes too thick, whisk in some milk to thin it out.

6. Let the lamingtons set on a wire rack for an hour to set.

7. Store in an airtight container they keep well -if you can stop yourself eating them as they are extremely delicious!