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The Great Australian Lamington

The Great Australian Lamington
Lord Lamington Governor of Queensland - creator of the world-famous Australian Lamington.

The Humble Australian Lamington - Created in Queensland in 1901


Australian Lamington
THE WORLD-FAMOUS AUSTRALIAN CULINARY ICON NAMED AFTER THE GOVERNOR OF QUEENSLAND - LORD LAMINGTON.

The world-famous Australian lamington is over a century old.

Despite some dubious claims from New Zealand, the lamington is as Australian as meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars, ranking alongside the other true Australian icons of the pavlova, peach melba and Vegemite.

This Australian culinary icon, which consists of sponge cake dipped in chocolate and liberally sprinkled with fine desiccated coconut, was created through an accident at work by a maid-servant to Lord Lamington, the thoroughly-British eighth Governor of Queensland.

The maid-servant was working at Government House in Brisbane when she accidentally dropped the Governor's favourite sponge cake into some melted chocolate.

Lord Lamington was not a person of wasteful habits and suggested that it be dipped in coconut to cover the chocolate to avoid messy fingers.

Paul Tully celebrates
the 100th anniversary
of the world renowned
Australian lamington
on 19 December 2001
Lord Lamington devoured this new taste sensation with great delight and the maid-servant's error was proclaimed a magnificent success by all! The Governor however is on the record as calling them "those bloody poofy woolly biscuits".

Lord Lamington was born in London, England on 29 July 1860 as Charles Wallace Alexander Napier COCHRANE-BAILLIE holding the aristocratic title of Baron Lamington.

He was Governor of Queensland from 9 April 1896 to 19 December 1901.

After leaving Queensland, he went on to become the Governor of Bombay in India for 4 years. He died at Lamington House, Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1940.

According to Hansard page 728 at the Australian Constitutional Convention in Canberra on 11 February 1998, Cr Paul Tully, an elected delegate representing "Queenslanders for a Republic" suggested that his extensive research of the Governors of the 6 Australian colonies and states had produced evidence of only "one, single, solitary, positive achievement of any Governor since the First Fleet arrived in 1788" and that was Lord Lamington's contribution to the culinary delights of the Australian nation!

Lord Lamington served Queensland for 5 years but despite all of his colonial, aristocratic pomp and ceremony, the only thing which Charles Wallace Alexander Napier COCHRANE-BAILLIE will ever be remembered for in Australia is the creation of the world-famous lamington.

PAUL TULLY'S TRUE-BLUE DELICIOUS AUSSIE LAMINGTON RECIPE

INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup castor sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup self-raising flour 1/2 cup milk.

Beat the eggs well, gradually adding the sugar until dissolved. Add the milk and vanilla essence and then stir in the self raising flour and whip the butter into the mixture. Pour the mixture into a cake tin or lamington baking dish and bake in a moderate oven of 180 degrees Celsius for 35 minutes. Allow the cake to cool for at least 10 minutes and then stand for 24 hours preferably in the refrigerator, before applying the icing.

THE CHOCOLATE ICING
4 cups icing sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup milk
4 tablespoons boiling water
3 cups desiccated coconut.

Stir the cocoa and icing sugar vigorously in a large bowl, adding the milk, butter and boiling water, warming the chocolate mixture over a very low heat until it has a smooth creamy texture. Cut the sponge cake into equal squares about 5cm x 5cm and, using a fork or thin skewer, dip each piece into the chocolate mixture ensuring that the mixture is liberally and evenly applied. Dip each piece into the desiccated coconut, allowing the lamingtons to cool on a wire tray for several hours.

THEN SIT BACK, RELAX AND SAVOUR THE DELIGHTS OF YESTERYEAR COURTESY OF LORD LAMINGTON'S ABSENT-MINDED MAID-SERVANT!

THANK GOD, THE LAMINGTON WAS NOT CHRISTENED THE "COCHRANE-BAILLIE". IMAGINE ASKING FOR A "COCHRANE-BAILLIE" IN A CAKE SHOP!
© Paul Tully 2009


Do you have an interesting historical anecdote about the Australian lamington?
Please email the Australian Lamington Official Website.




Australia Day: Making Traditional Lamingtons

Aussie lamingtons.
I guess this post will come to you all a little late in the day (I really need to get my act together) but HAPPY AUSTRALIA day to all my fellow Australians. 

It’s been a while since I posted but I thought Australia day would be a good time to get back into the swing of things.

This year has been busy so far as we’ve just recently moved house. Yes, unfortunately we had to vacate the first house we moved into when we arrived in Melbourne. 

We loved our sweet little home and I have so many fond memories from there and so many amazing food creations came out of that kitchen. 

However, to help me get over the move, we found a beautiful new house to move into, in the same suburb. I’m now well and truly over the old house, and am quite happy being a complete home-body over this long weekend! It’s also been a good time to test out the new kitchen.





Australia Day feast.
So I thought I’d test the oven this long weekend with a traditional Australian recipe – the Lamington. I had planned on changing up the recipe slightly but time just got away from me (not particularly because I was busy but because of my favourite past time – procrastination). 

So, these are just some straight up, nothing fancy, super tasty, lamingtons (although I have still been dreaming of my Nutella Lamintons I made on the blog – recipe found here).

Also here, I thought I’d just share with you some snaps I took while I was away in Tassie over the Christmas/holiday break. We went took a bit of a drive up the east coast to camp at Coles Bay and do the walk into Wineglass bay. 

This would have to be my most favourite places in the world. I’ve seen a lot of beaches on my travels and I still don’t think any other place is quite as clean and beautiful as Wineglass bay. Stunning. 

There’s also a great wine region on the drive up to Coles Bay that we popped our heads into called Miltons. We stopped for a quick wine tasting – they’ve got a really great Pinot Grigio. Augh take me back. And now look – it’s Australia day already.

Happy Australia Day again.


Traditional Lamingtons

175g self raising flour, sifted

1 rounded tsp baking powder

3 eggs, at room temperature

175g butter, softened

175g castor sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup cocoa

3 1/2 cups icing sugar

1/2 cup boiling water

1 tbsp butter

2 cups coconut flakes


1. Preheat oven to 170ºC .

2. In a large bowl add sifted flour and baking powder, eggs, sugar, vanilla extract and butter and mix well until combined.

3. Lightly grease the pan and divide the mixture evenly (I used a pan with small rectangular shapes or place it into one large square pan). Place it in the oven for 15-20 mins depending on the size of the pan. You should be able to smell the cake when it’s ready and the tops should be golden brown. Remove from the oven when cooked and cut into bite size pieces once cooled.

4. It’s best to leave the cakes overnight (normal recipes use day old sponge cake) so the cake is a little firmer. Next mix the cocoa, icing sugar, water and butter and stir until smooth. Pour the coconut into a small bowl. Take a fork and insert it into the cake half way and spoon the cocoa mixture over the cake, then dip it into the coconut to ensure it’s completely covered. Repeat with the remaining cake. Let sit for an hour or so to ensure the moisture sets back through the cake.

5. Best enjoyed on Australia Day after a delicious BBQ!

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