Australia Day Lamingtons

Australia Day apart from being a great long weekend is our national day where we commemorate the landing of the First Fleet in Sydney Cove in 1788. We typically celebrate it with a BBQ with plenty of sausages (snags) and chops and lots of fresh salads and following lunch and abundance of Pavlova topped with freshly whipped cream and fruit.

So in preparation for Australia day l made some Lamingtons, Lamingtons are delicious squares of sponge cake that are covered in Chocolate Icing and Coconut. Lamingtons started to appear in recipe books in the early 1900's and were named after Charles Wallace Baillie, Lord Lamington. He was the governor of Queensland from 1895-1901.

Now if you have never heard of Lamington's l urge you to try them!

Chocolate Lamington Recipe
ingredients
120g butter
2/3 Cup Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup Milk
2 Cups Self Raising Flour
Vanilla Extract or Essence
Pinch Salt

Chocolate Icing
1 2/3 Cups of Icing Sugar
4 Tblspns Cocoa
Boiling Water
Vanilla Extract or Essence
Dessicated Coconut (shredded)

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F Grease and flour a shallow square cake tin.

Beat Butter and Sugar until light and creamy. Add Vanilla. Beat in Eggs, one at a time. Sift Flour and Salt together. Add alternately to mixture with the Milk. Mix lightly to form a soft mix.

Spoon into the Cake tin and bake for approx. 1/2 hour or until cake is cooked. When cold, cut into uniform sized squares.

Dip each square of Cake in the Chocolate Icing (see below) and then roll in the Coconut. Set aside for the Icing to set.
Tip - place a square of sponge cake on the end of a fork prior to dipping. This will be less messy as you need to completely cover each square in Chocolate and then Coconut.

Chocolate Icing
Sift Icing Sugar into a bowl. Blend Cocoa with the Boiling Water to make a smooth paste. Mix into the Icing Sugar, adding a little more boiling water at a time, if needed. Add Vanilla. The Icing should be the consistency of pouring cream, for ease of dipping.

Enjoy!

Y x