Lachie might be the face of ‘Eat Lamingtons, Not Lambs’, but someone has to actually bake the lamingtons. Here, Layla shares the recipe Mahh and God-Mahh use each year for ‘Straya Day’ (January 26). The recipe can also be used to make a giant lamington (cake) – just bake in a cake tin and ice before chucking coconut on it.
We have annotated vegan alternatives (V) next to the standard ingredients.
What you need
A pan: 1 inch deep. 9 in x 12 in or similar (we use a brownie pan)
Baking paper – line the pan so it overhangs. This makes it easier to lift the sponge out.
An oven – pre-heat at 160 degrees Celsius if fan forced (180 non fan-forced)
An electric mixer, or similar. Unless you have sufficient elbow grease.
A wire rack for the lamingtons to have a siesta.
Sponge
125g unsalted butter (softened) – V = Nuttelex or other non-dairy alternative
1 cup caster sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs – V = equivalent in eggs replacer
1 ¾ cups of self-raising flour (sifted)
½ cup milk – V = rice milk. Soy milk makes the sponge too heavy
Icing (the best part)
3 ½ cups icing sugar mixture – If you don’t have icing sugar mixture, mix pure icing sugar with corn flour – we added a heaped tablespoon of corn flour to the pure icing sugar when we ran out of icing mixture.
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon unsalted butter (softened) – V = nuttelex
½ cup water (boiling)
Coconut
At least 2-3 cups of desiccated coconut to roll your lamingtons in. Better to have more than not enough.
How to make the sponge
- Pre-heat your oven, line the pan with baking paper, and make sure you have everything you need so you don’t run around like an ewe who has misplaced her lamb.
- Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy like Layla's spring fleece.
- Add the eggs one at a time while beating. If you’re afraid a bad egg will ruin the mixture, you can crack them into a mug to double check before adding them.
- Sift half of the self-raising flour into the mixture then stir until combined.
- Add half of the milk and stir.
- Repeat with the remaining flour and milk.
- Pour/spoon into the pan and smooth.
- Pop in the oven for around half an hour. To double-check if cooked, stick a skewer into the centre. If it isn’t covered in mixture then all good.
- Allow the sponge to have a snooze in the pan for around 15-20 minutes.
- Remove the sponge and place onto a wire rack. If you don’t have a wire rack, you can sit the sponge, still clothed in baking paper, on a chopping board. It just takes longer to cool and might sweat the base a bit.
- Leave the sponge to rest for a few hours. It needs to cool down entirely. Cover it with a light tea towel (preferably one not used to wipe lambs’ mouths).
How to make the Icing
- Sift the icing sugar mixture and cocoa powder into a large bowl.
- Add the softened butter.
- Pour in a small amount of boiling water. Mix.
- Keep mixing and adding the water until the icing mixture is runny/smooth. If it is too thick the sponge may break apart when you move it/roll it in the coconut.
- Put your coconut into a separate bowl that is big enough to roll your sponge around once it is cut into shapes.
The fun part: Icing the sponge
- Cut the sponge into fingers, squares, or whatever shape you fancy.
- Use a small set of tongs, or two forks, to roll the individual piece of sponge in the icing mixture.
- Hold above the bowl and allow the excess icing to run off.
- Place the sponge in the coconut and rotate it until all sides are covered. If excess coconut clings gently shake it. If you move it too much it will probably collapse like a half-eaten hay bale.
- You now have a lamington. Congratulations.
- Sit the lamington on a wire rack until it sets. This can take anywhere from half an hour to two hours.
- Repeat this process until you have multiple lamingtons.
- Eat them. Share them. Hide them. Just don’t feed them to your lambs unless you want a vet bill.
In Australia, we store the lamingtons in a fridge in plastic containers. Or freeze them for later.
Considering chocolate doesn’t melt as easily in places like the UK you’re probably safe to leave the lamingtons out of the fridge – particularly during winter.
So there is a lot more to making lamingtons than Lachie posing for photos.
Let us know if you make some and share the photos with us!
Bahh!
Layla x
