Favourite Aussie Sweet Treats
We love our Australian desserts and cakes and because we are such a multi-cultural society we have dessert and cakes from all over the world.
Like ice-cream, chocolate pudding, sticky date pudding, chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, caramel slice, pineapple upside down cake, trifle, all sorts of puddings and cakes.... well you get the picture and I'm getting carried away here and hungry so enough of that!
Even though a lot of the favourites sweet treats we eat are from other places there are a few uniquely Australian desserts too; or are they?
We thought we'd just give you a brief history of three of our favourites and the mystery surrounding their beginnings and you can decide.
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| Australian lamington with filled cream |
Lamingtons
Now lamingtons are a favourite in Australia, either as an Australian dessert or just as a cake with a cuppa.
Along with some other favourites it rates right up there as a sweet treat that we in Australia enjoy.
The history of how lamingtons evolved is a bit debatable and quite interesting really.
Having done some research and remembering from my childhood, there are different stories of how the cake came about and whichever is the correct story will probably remain a bit of a mystery, but what fun to debate the real origin of the sweet!
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| Lord Lamington - after whom lamingtons are named. |
One thing I think we can be sure of the dessert was in some way related to Lord Lamington who was the Governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901.
It is reported however that Lord Lamington was believed to have disliked the dessert cakes that had been named in his honour, referring to them as "those bloody poofy woolly biscuits".
And so onto the stories of how the humble and delicious Lamington was born.
So to the first story: Apparently the French born chef to the Governor, Gallad, was asked to produce food when unexpected guests arrived during the Federation celebrations in 1901. He found left over vanilla sponge cake and to freshen it up dropped it in chocolate and smothered it in coconut.
The second story says that the lamington was first served to the Governor and his guests when Governor Lamington and his entourage left the hot steamy weather in Brisbane to go to Toowoomba to try and escape the heat.
And finally the third and quite interesting tale is that Gallad accidently dropped the sponge cake into a dish of chocolate. It was later sprinkled with coconut to make it look more appealing.
Coconut was not widely used in those days but Gallad's wife was from Tahiti so he was aware of the appeal of it and how it was used in a variety of ways.
It was reported that Lady Lamington's guest enjoyed the cake so much they requested the recipe.
I don't think it really matters which story is correct because the basics are the same; the French chef to the Governor, Armand Gallad, created the cakes for Governor Lamington and guests at some stage and the Australian dessert eventually got the name it has today the humble Lamington. Delicious!
Get the Lamingtons recipe from our Australian Recipes page.
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