Thursday, November 15, 2007

Lamingtons


To be honest, I never in my life thought I would make a Lamington from scratch. And here we are today and I have made my first batch and it probably won't be my last.
It's a bit of mucking around, dipping your little sponge cakes into the melted chocolate icing, but the finished product it's worth the effort. Your friends will be impressed to boot!



Ingredients:

Sponge Cake:
6 eggs
150 g (51/2 oz/2/3 cup) caster (superfine) sugar
200 g (7 oz/12/3 cups) self-raising flour
30 g (1 oz) unsalted butter, melted

Chocolate Icing:
500 g (1 lb 2 oz/4 cups) icing (confectioners') sugar
200 g (7 oz) dark chocolate, chopped
15 g (1/2 oz) unsalted butter
125 ml (4 fl oz/1/2 cup) milk
375 g (13 oz/4 cups) desiccated coconut

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4). Lightly grease and line the base of an 18 x 28 cm
(7 x 11 inch) tin with baking paper.

To make the cake, beat the eggs for about 5 minutes with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add the sugar and continue beating until the mixture is thick and the sugar has dissolved. Sift in the flour and fold in lightly. Add the butter and 3 tablespoons of hot water and stir gently to combine. Pour into the tin and bake for 30 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

To make the chocolate icing, put the sugar, dark chocolate, butter and milk in a heatproof bowl and place over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir constantly until melted and mixed together.

Cut the sponge into 16 squares. Put the coconut in a bowl. Dip each sponge square into the chocolate icing and then in the coconut. Leave on a wire rack to dry completely before serving. Makes 16


5 comments:

thanh7580 said...

Your post has started to sway me Adski. I saw someone else's post about lamingtons and was tempted to make them. But then I read the recipe and it all seemed so fiddly. Especially when I can buy fairly decent ones from Coles.

It's probably a silly question as I sure I know the answer, but were these a lot better than the ones from Coles?

Adski said...

Yeh, I admit it's a bit of effort to make them, but it is satisfying. You should try it once at least. Just think, you can buy the best quality chocolate, make the best sponge with organic eggs and get some big flakes of chocolate. No coles lamingtons could taste that good! ;)

Adski said...

Flakes of coconut... i meant flakes of coconut... so tired....

thanh7580 said...

Adski, I guessed you would say as much as I have to agree. Ok, I'll jot down this recipe and this will be the next cake I make. I'll let you know how I go.

thecoffeesnob said...

Ooh, i love lamingtons. Yours look fantastic!