Today is Australia Day, for all you non-Australians out there. Now, I've never been a big supporter of Australia day, since as far as I can tell it's celebrating a shipload of convicts arriving here, but any excuse to bake is a good one! (Don't get me wrong, I love Australia, but I just don't love the racist connotations that seem to come along with Australia day)
So I spent my day, in true Aussie fashion, baking lamingtons and listening to the hottest 100 on triple j (worth checking out even if you're not in Aus, it's such a good compilation of some of the year's best songs). And actually, it was a really really nice day, which proves that sometimes no matter how sure you are it's going to be a bad day, you should never give up.
Sorry for the motivational quote there. Who knows where it came from? But these lamingtons really are something, and they're a totally different thing from the six pack you might pick up at woolies. The fluffy cake is really nice on it's own, but the chocolate and coconut just makes it, and after all, what could be more fun than rolling cake in chocolate?
Mia :)
Lamingtons
Based on: pg 217 'Baking Day'- Australian Women's Weekly
3 eggs
75g (1/3 cup) caster sugar
25g (2 tbps) cornflour
35g (1/4 cup) plain flour
25g (2 tbps) self raising flour
2ish cups dessicated coconut
Chocolate icing
500g (3 cups) icing sugar
50g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder
15g butter, melted
160ml (2/3 cup) milk
1. Preheat oven to 180˚C/350˚F. Grease deep 11cm square cake pan.
2. Beat eggs in a medium bowl with an electric beater until thick and creamy (approx 10 minutes). Gradually beat in sugar, beating until sugar has dissolved after each addition. Sift in flours and gently fold in until just combined. Spread mixture into pan.
3. Bake cake 30 minutes. Turn cake, top side up, onto wire rack to cool completely.
4. Make chocolate icing by sifting icing sugar into a large heatoproof bowl; stir in butter and milk. Stir icing over large saucepan of simmering water until of a coating consistency.
5. When cake is cool, transfer icing to a shallow bowl and fill another shallow bowl with coconut. Cut the cake into 16 squares, then roll each in the chocolate and toss in coconut. Place on a wire rack to set (if you can wait that long!)
"as far as I can tell it's celebrating a shipload of convicts arriving here" hahaha bit harsh eh? :p
ReplyDeleteanyways, glad that gave you the excuse to go celebrating with some aussie treats. this is the first tiem I've heard of lamingtons tbh, I'm quite intigued! they remind me of a singaporean dessert called ondeh ondeh because of the roling in dessicated coconut, but then of course the inside is all very western and cake like. sounds wonderful!
Hehe yes, it is a little harsh, though Australia day is often associated with racism and the taking of land from the traditional owners, so I guess its not so much as a patriotism thing as say Independence Day.
DeleteI can't believe you've never heard of lamingtons! I'll have to look ondeh ondeh up, it sounds really interesting. If you get a chance, lamingtons are certainly worth a try, they're really yummy :)