In a week where the Prime Minister is being bashed for granting a knighthood to the Queen’s husband, I thought it a most prudent time to betray my monarchist leanings in this marriage of the British and the Australian. Whether Australian or New Zealander in origin, I grew up with lamingtons in South Africa, so the colonial connection is the one certain thing. Be that as it may, I made lamingtons for Australia Day. The nature of the beast is such that you need enough icing to dip the sponge in, inevitably leading to leftover icing. Most online suggestions are to use those leftovers in a lamington milkshake. I wanted to use it in baking again, though, and considered adding copious amount of icing sugar to give it a spreadable icing consistency, but decided instead to keep it in its original state and use it in an experiment – a lamington cake.
Having had something of a Great British Bake-Off marathon recently, I was itching to try Mary Berry’s all-in-one sponge recipe. This cake would give me just that opportunity. Imagine my disappointment then when the cakes developed a slight dip about 15 minutes into the bake. I have scoured the Internet in the hope to find an answer to why this had happened as I knew it was neither the obvious oven temperature nor opening the oven door too early. I could not have beat it any less than I did, so I ruled over-beating out as a possible cause too. All I can say with any certainty is that the batter didn’t have that drop-off-the-spoon consistency. So, I might have required a bit more egg. I doubt that this would cause the cake to sink, though. The other alternative, which to me seemed the most likely, is the baking powder. Either mine is a bit old or the sheer quantity of baking powder caused my sunken cakes. The latter, to me, seems the most likely. I have since found a Delia Smith recipe, which is virtually identical bar the use of vanilla extract. The only major difference is that she instructs you to sift the dry ingredients from a high height. I will incorporate this technique upon my next attempt and let you know how I go.
Despite the slight disaster, I did proceed with my cake. After levelling the cake with the deepest dip, I established that the cake was cooked, with even the centre seeming dry. I decided to proceed all the same as at least 95% of it was cooked and perfectly edible. The cake was intended for my husband’s colleagues whom I knew wouldn’t mind.
I then proceeded to reheat the leftover lamington icing on a bain marie (a saucepan of boiling water) as I had done to make it in the first place. I had kept the rather unattractive-looking mix in the glass bowl I originally made it in, covered in cling wrap, in the fridge.
Next step was to completely cover the bottom layer of cake with the icing.
This was followed by a layer of strawberry jam, which looked decidedly gross. I covered that with a layer of desiccated coconut, which I failed to photograph.
Then a layer of whipped cream went on, which was difficult to apply without getting bits of coconut stuck to it. (I took this picture after I had already placed the top layer on and then removed it again!)
The second layer of the cake went on top of the cream, pressing down on it a bit so the cream would ooze out slightly.
I tried to soak the top layer in as much of the leftover icing as possible. Unfortunately, due to the sunken middle, it did pool there a fair bit. With the cakes already compressed in this middle, this made for a rather gooey centre, which I think people actually liked!
I covered the icing with another layer of coconut, finishing it off with whipped cream.
I got very positive feedback about this bake. I can’t tell you what it taste like as there were no leftovers for me to try! Even my husband dearest had to eat the scraps. Basically, the cake was cut up, he left to get some water, and came back to this:
If you give it a go, please comment and let me know how it went.
The Bakellie 