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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.




Gourmet Lamington recipe - Triple chocolate delight - Pure decadence

This is as decadent as it gets!













 You'll need:

100 gm dark chocolate (56% cocoa solids), coarsely chopped
60 gm butter, coarsely chopped
8 eggs, at room temperature
300 gm caster sugar
180 gm plain flour
60 gm Dutch-process cocoa
2 tspbaking powder
200 gm (4 cups) coconut flakes 
Raspberry jam
250 gm raspberries (about 2 punnets)
120 gm caster sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
Chocolate-raspberry cream
200 ml thickened cream
120 gm dark chocolate (56% cocoa solids), melted
20 ml raspberry liqueur
80 gm raspberries, coarsely crushed 
Chocolate glaze 
60 gm dark chocolate (56% cocoa solids), coarsely chopped
240 gm pure icing sugar, sieved
80 gm Dutch-process cocoa, sieved
60 ml(¼ cup) milk

Method

01
Preheat oven to 180C. Melt half the chocolate and half the butter in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, stir until smooth and keep warm. Whisk half the eggs and half the sugar in an electric mixer until pale and tripled in volume (5-6 minutes). Triple-sieve half the flour, half the cocoa and half the baking powder into a large bowl. Fold flour mixture into egg mixture in two batches, then fold in chocolate mixture, spoon into a 21cm-square cake tin buttered and lined with baking paper and smooth top. Bake until centre springs back when lightly pressed (25-30 minutes) and cool on a wire rack. Repeat with remaining ingredients.

02
Meanwhile, for raspberry jam, stir raspberries, sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves, bring to the boil and cook until jammy (8-10 minutes), then cool completely.

03
For chocolate-raspberry cream, whisk cream, chocolate and liqueur in an electric mixer until soft peaks form (3-4 minutes; don’t over-whisk or mixture will split), fold in raspberries and refrigerate until required.

04
Trim tops of cakes flush, spread jam over one cake, spread with chocolate-raspberry cream and refrigerate until cream is just firm (10-15 minutes). Sandwich with remaining cake and refrigerate until firm (1 hour).

05
Meanwhile, for chocolate glaze, stir chocolate and 190ml water in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water until smooth (2-3 minutes), remove from heat, add icing sugar and cocoa, stir until smooth, then stir in milk.

06
Cut cake into 7cm squares, dip each quickly in chocolate glaze then roll in coconut. Stand until set (1 hour), then serve.


Note: We've swapped the traditional butter cake for chocolate cake in these lamingtons, and raised the stakes with a chocolate cream. If you don't fancy making your own jam, use a tart shop-bought jam.

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