In case you've never had the pleasure, a lamington is a cube of sponge cake dipped in a sugary syrup and then into coconut - simple, but oh-so-good. The syrup soaks into the cake a little, and creates a sweet, tasty shell. Traditionally lamingtons are either chocolate or raspberry (which is compulsorily presented in a fakey pink colour), but I have seen many other flavours - whatever flavourings you have to hand will do! My favourite is always chocolate, though...
I cheated completely and bought the sponge for my lamingtons, as they were for a leaving afternoon tea for a workmate, for which I was also making some little almond and orange cakes (which didn't turn out very well so I won't be sharing that recipe!) and didn't have all that much time. If you do as I did and buy the sponge then the lamingtons are really easy - and even if you make your own cake they're not that hard - just make sure you leave it a day or so to firm up as freshly baked cake would likely disintegrate when you tried to dip it!
Easy but messy!
The recipe is really simple:
Chocolate Lamingtons
Ingredients
Large square/rectangular sponge
1 2/3 cups icing sugar x 2
4 Tbsp cocoa
boiling water
vanilla essence
raspberry essence
red food colour
dessicated coconut
Method
Cut the sponge into cubes - as large or small as you like (but remember small ones will need more icing proportionately).
Sift one batch of icing sugar into a bowl. Blend cocoa with a little hot water to make a paste. Mix into icing sugar, and gradually add water until the consistency of pouring cream. Add a little vanilla.
Dip each cube first into icing, coating completely, then into coconut, then set on a tray, rinse, repeat.
Sift the remaining icing sugar into another bowl, add boiling water in the same way as before. This time add a little raspberry essence (about 1 teaspoon, or to taste) and a drop or two of red food colouring. Repeat process to get your raspberry lamingtons!
Hi! I'm Rosa, a.k.a. Mrs Cake, and I live in Wellington, New Zealand. I love food in all its forms, my fabulous family, and a bit of good old-fashioned Kiwi DIY. This blog started around food but has evolved to include some other bits and pieces - I hope you'll join me for the journey!
I always made the icing you did for chocolate ones, but for raspberry we tended to use a strong jelly mix, that we had let thicken a little (not to much or it won't absorb right). The raspberry icing seems a good way to go when i don't have jelly crystals, will have to try it next time
ReplyDeleteTrue - I forgot about jelly crystals. Mr Cake and I both prefer them this way - but they are different (it's just been a while since I've had a jelly crystal one). But chocolate still wins over everything else for me! ;-)
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