Lamingtons

I had never heard of Lamingtons till SJ mentioned making them for a bake sale in Chennai ! The food blogger / foodie groups in Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi seem to be very active, making me miss my good old Bangalore even more.



I looked them up on David Lebovitz's site and they seemed easy enough. Knowing TH's love for chocolate, I decided on making these for his birthday a week back.
Lamingtons are originally from Australian. They are basically little cuboid shaped sponge cake pieces dipped in chocolate icing and then rolled in coconut flakes. They may have a cream or jam filling, but Lebovitz used chocolate there again and that looked like the most tempting option.



The sponge (my very first) turned out really nice, though I was quite worried if it would be too eggy. But it tasted just fine. The chocolate icing was delicious and the dessicated coconut with the chocolate was such a lovely combination - something I tried for the first time.
The process of dipping the cake in chocolate and then coating it with coconut flakes took a little longer than I expected. My little son was so eager to eat it at every stage, so a couple of pieces vanished in the process of testing and tasting.

Give this a try, its really delicious and was a big hit with my friends and family. If you are feeling a little lazy, use store bought sponge cake, and save up on that much time.

Lamingtons
(makes about 16)
Recipe Source - David Lebovitz.com

What you need -

Spongecake -

6 eggs (room temperature)
1 1/3 cup cake flour*
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup melted unsalted butter

*Cake Flour - Used the tip from Smitten Kitchen to make the cake flour - for every cup of regular flour, add 2 tbsp of cornflour / cornstarch and sift together twice. Measure out the cake flour from this.

Chocolate Icing -

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate, chopped
3 tbsp unsalted butter
3/4 cup milk
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Morde)
2 tbsp boiling water
3 cups unsweetened shredded coconut

What you do with it -

Spongecake -

Grease a 9" square pan and line the bottom with parchment paper
Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F)
Beat the eggs and granulated sugar and salt on high speed for five to ten minutes, until thick. Stir in the vanilla.
Use a mesh strainer and sift the flour over the beaten eggs, and simultaneously fold in the flour, using a whisk. I used a large spoon instead of a whisk
Fold in the melted butter gently, taking care not to overfold
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan
Remove from oven and allow to cool
When the cake has cooled down completely, gently remove the sponge cake onto a cutting board. Remove the parchment paper
Cut into two rectangles and then cut each into half horizontally

Chocolate Icing -

Mix the chopped chocolate, butter and milk in a heatproof bowl. Hold it over a pan of simmering water and mix well till its smooth. Take it off the heat and then add the powdered sugar and cocoa powder.
Spread about half a cup of the chocolate icing over one layer of the spongecake, then top with the other half of the spongecake, sandwiching the two together with chocolate icing in the middle
Cut the cakes into sixteen squares
Whisk two tablespoons of boiling water into the icing. Put the coconut flakes into a shallow bowl.
Use your hands to dip the Lamingtons into the chocolate, rolling them around to make sure each side is coated with the chocolate icing.
Then roll the chocolate coated pieces in the coconut flakes, so its coated well on all sides
Once all the pieces are coated with chocolate and tossed in coconut, place the Lamingtons on a wire cooling rack and let stand until the icing firms up a bit