Lamingtons

Lamingtons are antipodean tea-cakes made of sponge dipped in chocolate and strawberry icing covered in coconut and served with whip cream. Hardly healthy but who cares? Eat cake, get chubby, be jolly! Traditional recipes uses a Victoria sponge but I'm not the biggest fan of English sponge reminds me of the foam mattress I used to sleep on during sleep overs.
So I've based my sponge on a famous cornflour sponge recipe found in the New Zealand Edmounds Cook Book a cooking bible for anyone who grew up in Aotearoa. Its sweet and dissolves in the mouth and perfect with whipped cream.


Lamington sponge recipe:
3 Large Eggs
1/2 Cup Caster Sugar
1/2 Cup Corn Flour
2 tablespoon Plain Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
Strawberry Icing:
1x135g strawberry jelly
200ml water
25g butter
375g Icing sugar
Chocolate Icing:
25 g Cocoa powder
25g butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
150ml water
375g Icing sugar
Extras:
Desiccated coconut
200ml double cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoon caster sugar
 
Method:
Preheat Oven to 190oC, line at 6 inch by 8 inch sandwich tin with baking paper.

Beat egg whites until peaks fold over when beater is removed. Slowly add caster sugar to the egg white and continue to beat until the mixture is stiff and sugar dissolved.

Add the egg yolks and beat until well blended. Sift corn flour, flour and baking powder three times and fold into egg mixture gently with a metal spoon. Use and up and down movement. Don't stir.

Bake in prepared tins at 190deg C for 15 - 20mins. Allow to cool in the tins for 5 mins before turning out onto a rack. One tray will cut into 16 squares.

Once the sponge is cut peel the brown top off the sponge as it will make less of a mess later on when dipping in icing.

To make icing you will need 2 small pots, in one pot place the strawberry jelly, butter and water and place on a high heat till the jelly has dissolved. In the other pot place cocoa, vanilla, butter, water and place on high heat and stir till the cocoa has dissolved into the water and makes a syrupy paste.

With electric beater place the strawberry jelly mix into bowl with icing sugar and beat till there are no lumps then place aside.

To make the chocolate icing place chocolate mixture into bowl with icing sugar and beat till smooth and runny.

Place in 2 separate 1 litre containers coconut almost fill to the top, one container is for the chocolate lamington the other is for the raspberry lamingtons.

Dip half the sponge squares into the raspberry icing covering all sides, then dip the lamington in coconut coating the sponge with coconut and place aside onto grease proof paper to set.

With the other half of sponge squares dip into the chocolate icing and repeat the same process.

Whip the cream, vanilla and caster sugar till the cream is quite floppy make sure you don’t over beat as this will turn the whipped cream into butter.

To complete the lamington spoon one dollop of whipped cream onto a lamington square and carefully place another square on top, this is a lamington!