The Lamington
How the simple sponge cake accidentally became one of Australia’s most popular cakes.
The first settlers liked to cook large slabs of cake to feed their big families, but the lack of refrigeration and adequate preservatives meant these cakes quickly went stale. Rather than waste the stale cake it was cut into cubes with a jam filling in the centre and coated in chocolate and then rolled in grated coconut. So the original Lamington cake was actually made to disguise stale cake.
Recipes for the Lamington started appearing in cook books in the early 20th century and it soon became one of Australia’s most popular cakes. So popular that people started to make them especially using fresh sponge cake.
The meaning of the word lamington actually means “layers of beaten gold” and some believe this is where it got its name.
The cakes name has also been attributed to the maid of Baron Lamington (Governor of Queensland from 1895-1901) who accidentally dropped some sponge cake into chocolate. The story goes that the Baron then suggested the coconut to avoid messy fingers.
How the Lamington got its name is not really important, the important thing is it is eaten and enjoyed by nearly all Australians.
This entry would not be complete with out the Lamington recipe:
Ingredients
1/2 cup of butter (margarine)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup of milk
Your Prefered Jam Filling
Beat butter and sugar to a cream. Add eggs and beat well. Add flour and milk folding in carefully. Pour into a tin, greased or lined with oven paper, 24×28 cm and bake at 170 degrees Celsius for a 1/2 hour.
TIP:
Leave one day (preferably in a deep freeze) before cutting into squares.
FILLING:
Slice each square in half and spread thin layer of Jam and then join back together.
ICING:
Mix icing sugar (powdered sugar) and cocoa together with a little milk. Roll squares into mixture then into grated coconut.
