Just the other day it was, it was just the other day that I was saying to my neighbour Tracey "I will never make lamingtons! Nevah!". I went on to list so many good reasons why you wouldn't make them and why you'd buy them instead. Just so many good reasons, they really were pertinent, well expressed and reasonable.
Anyway, I made lamingtons. All my good reasons flew out the door like so many budgerigars attempting to evade capture when I saw a good looking recipe. I am a sucker for a recipe with pictures. Words? Well words are ok, I like words a lot too, but I cannot get excited by the words "butter cake". A picture of butter cake is a different matter, I can get very excited about that. This recipe was bursting at the seams with pictures, it was excellent and it made lamington making sound like a walk in the coconut and chocolate park. Like a doddle. Much like crucifixion. And that really is the only Monty Python joke I'll make in this blog,
The pictures were lovely, the instructions were clear and suddenly I just knew that making lamingtons was my destiny, that they always had been, and now that my destiny was here I could walk towards it with my hair streaming backwards and my diaphanous white gown flowing. Which is what I did.
Photoshopping is quite the art form. Not one that I've mastered obviously, but I get the point across in my own ham-fisted way.
What is a lamington? Well, a small cake, yes. An icon of sorts, yes that's true too. A type of petit four, I could see that, yes. A jam free fancy, no. No it is not that. This is where one of the fundamental arguments about lamingtons occur - some have jam and some don't, some have cream and some don't and some... have jam and cream. There I said it. I really can't see any reason to eat a lamington with no jam. UNLESS you put jam in most of them and were tired and your foot was sort and you really wanted to finish up. It's ok in that case. More on that later.
Lamingtons require a few steps and they are best eaten on the day that they are made. That said I just ate one and it is 3 days old and has been in the fridge. So if you enjoy edible miscellany, like me, then keep 'em and eat 'em.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the envelope please.
*Pleasing rustling noise and then quiet non verbal sound of appreciation.
Here are your ingredients:
Cake
125g unsalted butter, very soft - a total pushover.
3/4 cup of castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence or less if you have the gloopy stuff.
2 eggs
1 and 3/4 cup of self raising flour
3/4 cup of milk
Icing
2 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
20grams of melted butter
3/4 cup boiling water
Coconut
1 and 1/4 cups of dessicated coconut and 1 and 1/4 cups of shredded coconut. I just used dessicated.
Grease and line a 20cm square tin. If you're like me then you spray it with canola spray and jam a piece of paper unevenly in there. I just can't be bothered with lining.
I have no pictures of the making of the butter cake, it is of no interest how it was made, the interesting part about lamingtons are the following steps. The one's that occur after you have made the butter cake.
Here is how you make it though... Beat the very soft butter with the sugar until pale and creamy. Pale like a vegetarian vampire and creamy like that scum that floats on the ocean in polluted places. Does that help? Add the two eggs one at a time and BEAT well after each addition. Gabe did this for me and no-one beats an egg like a five year old who is never allowed to hold the electric beater. No-one.
Alternate the flour and milk with a fluid and delightful folding motion. You are meant to finish with the flour. What on earth difference could it possibly make? That said, I did, You can never be to careful. Smooth it into your tin, like Barry White and then bake that sucker for about 30-35 mins. Or until a skewer is blah blah. Let it cool.
So, the next bit.
Yep. Cut that butter cake into 16 bits. How big? Well just do it evenly and they will be the size that they will be. But if you need a really handy comparison...
I wanted jam in my lamingtons, I love them with jam and I had raspberry and strawberry. So I cut the little square through the middle. like this...
And put ze jam on. And then sandwiched it back together.
Then comes the icing. To make that icing just mix all the ingredients together. I did not add all the water as I was a bit suspicious of how much there was. I couldn't make the last lamington though - not enough icing. Direct correlation to my way of thinking.
The icing is viscous, that is, velvety and smooth but quite wet. It has to be, it has a big job ahead of it.
Take that dear little jammy square and pop it into the icing quickly turning it till it is covered.
Then put it into a dish containing a layer of your coconut. I think that it's best to do this in layers as the coconut gets chocolatey.
Turn turn turn! Keep turning. Pile a bit on for good luck. Then, suddenly...
Voila. Adorable non? Repeat 15 more times. Or in my case 14 more times. Plus I got sick of cutting the lamingtons and so some were devoid of jam. I made jolly sure I didn't get those one's.
I hurt my toe at the pool, this is an aside which is meant to kind of explain my laziness re the jam. My toe is bruised and sore and the heat makes it more swollen. So I was over standing and rolling cake in coconut. Plus Gabe lost interest when he got a flake of coconut on his hand and was all, "This is messy!'. Is he a five year old or not?
Lamingtons. They are delightful. And yes, messy.
Anyway, I made lamingtons. All my good reasons flew out the door like so many budgerigars attempting to evade capture when I saw a good looking recipe. I am a sucker for a recipe with pictures. Words? Well words are ok, I like words a lot too, but I cannot get excited by the words "butter cake". A picture of butter cake is a different matter, I can get very excited about that. This recipe was bursting at the seams with pictures, it was excellent and it made lamington making sound like a walk in the coconut and chocolate park. Like a doddle. Much like crucifixion. And that really is the only Monty Python joke I'll make in this blog,
The pictures were lovely, the instructions were clear and suddenly I just knew that making lamingtons was my destiny, that they always had been, and now that my destiny was here I could walk towards it with my hair streaming backwards and my diaphanous white gown flowing. Which is what I did.
 |
| Me. A lamington. A staircase. Bad hair. My destiny. |
What is a lamington? Well, a small cake, yes. An icon of sorts, yes that's true too. A type of petit four, I could see that, yes. A jam free fancy, no. No it is not that. This is where one of the fundamental arguments about lamingtons occur - some have jam and some don't, some have cream and some don't and some... have jam and cream. There I said it. I really can't see any reason to eat a lamington with no jam. UNLESS you put jam in most of them and were tired and your foot was sort and you really wanted to finish up. It's ok in that case. More on that later.
Lamingtons require a few steps and they are best eaten on the day that they are made. That said I just ate one and it is 3 days old and has been in the fridge. So if you enjoy edible miscellany, like me, then keep 'em and eat 'em.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the envelope please.
*Pleasing rustling noise and then quiet non verbal sound of appreciation.
Here are your ingredients:
Cake
125g unsalted butter, very soft - a total pushover.
3/4 cup of castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence or less if you have the gloopy stuff.
2 eggs
1 and 3/4 cup of self raising flour
3/4 cup of milk
Icing
2 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
20grams of melted butter
3/4 cup boiling water
Coconut
1 and 1/4 cups of dessicated coconut and 1 and 1/4 cups of shredded coconut. I just used dessicated.
Grease and line a 20cm square tin. If you're like me then you spray it with canola spray and jam a piece of paper unevenly in there. I just can't be bothered with lining.
 |
| She can't be bothered with lining either. |
Here is how you make it though... Beat the very soft butter with the sugar until pale and creamy. Pale like a vegetarian vampire and creamy like that scum that floats on the ocean in polluted places. Does that help? Add the two eggs one at a time and BEAT well after each addition. Gabe did this for me and no-one beats an egg like a five year old who is never allowed to hold the electric beater. No-one.
 |
| That's right, blonde kid who isn't mine, Wooo! |
So, the next bit.
 |
| Saucily sliced. |
 |
| Cheery tomato. Or a clown nose. Or a bowling ball. |
I wanted jam in my lamingtons, I love them with jam and I had raspberry and strawberry. So I cut the little square through the middle. like this...
 |
| Looks like murder, tastes like heaven, |
Then comes the icing. To make that icing just mix all the ingredients together. I did not add all the water as I was a bit suspicious of how much there was. I couldn't make the last lamington though - not enough icing. Direct correlation to my way of thinking.
 |
| Raw |
 |
| Cooked |
The icing is viscous, that is, velvety and smooth but quite wet. It has to be, it has a big job ahead of it.
Take that dear little jammy square and pop it into the icing quickly turning it till it is covered.
 |
| Mid Turn |
 |
| What will happen to me? Naked and in a bowl of coconut! |
 |
| Sooooo fluffy! |
I hurt my toe at the pool, this is an aside which is meant to kind of explain my laziness re the jam. My toe is bruised and sore and the heat makes it more swollen. So I was over standing and rolling cake in coconut. Plus Gabe lost interest when he got a flake of coconut on his hand and was all, "This is messy!'. Is he a five year old or not?
Lamingtons. They are delightful. And yes, messy.
Usually it's just your writing that makes my mouth water; now I'm going to bake.
ReplyDeleteYou should have just called a toe truck.
ReplyDelete