I wish, for myself, that I made lamingtons more often. My mother helps me make these and she always complains about the mess that I end up making in the kitchen. It is all her fault! 😉
This is a classic recipe and I know practically every home has a lamington recipe. Where this one differs, is not in the ingredients but in the technicalities of making the lamington. It can be a nightmare to dip soft cake in warm chocolate syrup as the cake can very easily break. It is those pieces heavily soaked in syrup and rolled in coconut that are my favourite. Lamington scraps for me any day.
The recipe makes quite a large cake baked in an oven-sized roasting pan. I mostly end up halving the recipe and baking it in a 25cm square baking pan. For this recipe, I will list the ingredients to be baked in an oven roasting pan.
Lamingtons Ingredients
- CAKE RECIPE
- 250g butter/margarine at room temperature
- 2 c of caster sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 3 c of cake flour
- 3 tsps of baking powder
- 1 c of milk
- pinch of salt
- 2-3 c of dessicated coconut
- CHOCOLATE SYRUP
- 6 c of icing sugar
- 4 TB of cocoa powder
- 65g of butter
- 2/3c of water
Method
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
- Grease and line the bottom of an oven roasting pan.
- In one bowl, measure out the flour, baking powder and salt. Use a whisk and lightly mix to combine all the ingredients and break down any lumps in the flour.
- In a mixing bowl measure out the butter and sugar. Using an electric mixer, beat until light, pale and creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Mixture will appear to split but will come together smoothly after beating well.
- Add the flour mixture, alternating with the milk, to the creamed mixture in 3 batches. Start with the flour and then milk, and mix lightly in between each addition. End with the flour mixture and give a quick beat so that the cake batter is smooth.
- Pour into greased pan and bake for 30-35 minutes until the cake is well risen, golden brown and pulling away from the sides of the pan. Insert a toothpick/wooden skewer into the centre of the cake and if it comes out clean, then your cake is ready.
- Cool in pan for about 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to completely cool.
- Once the cake is completely cool, wrap it in cling wrap and keep in the fridge for an hour. The coldness of the fridge makes it easy to cut the cake into cubes and to dip the cakes in syrup.
Make the syrup:
- Sift icing sugar and cocoa into a large, flat saucepan. Turn the heat to low. Add butter and then add water gradually. Stir continuously until the sauce is smooth and thin enough for dipping.
- Lay out the coconut on a flat tray.
- Remove the cake from the fridge and cut into cubes.
- I like using 2 forks to roll the cubes of cake.
- Make a production line for yourself. Arrange your lamington station so that you take a cube of cake, dip into the warm sauce, make sure the cake is completely coated in chocolate, turn it over to the coconut. Use your 2 folks to do all of this. If you find it easier to use 2 spoons, go ahead. I am quite sure someone may already have an easier way. I do my lamingtons this way as it makes sense to me. Gently roll the piece of cake so that it is coated on all sides with the coconut, and lay on a wire rack to dry.
- Watch your sauce. If you find it getting thick, turn the pan onto a low heat, stir and mix. If the mixture is still thick, add a small quantity of water, a tablespoon at a time.
- Be gentle when rolling your cake in the sauce otherwise the cubes will break.
- Do not leave the cubes of cake to sit in the sauce. The cake will become too heavy to lift out of the sauce, and this will increase the risk of breaking.