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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.




Flaming Lamington drives into Great Australian Beer Spectapular


Stouts aren’t new to Nail brewer John Stallwood.

He already has two versions that are already popular on the Australian market.

So he has been keen to take up the Great Australasian Beer Spectapular challenge and devise a dark beer to entertain drinkers at the annual Melbourne festival next month.

Under the GABS rules the beers put up for the three-day even have to be unique, not produced by the brewer before.

So Stallwood has devised a Chocolate Stour with coffee, coconut and chilli. And its name, which is so important at an event such as GABS, is, Flaming Lamington.

“It will be like tasting the cake with a little bit of chili heat thrown in,” Stallwood said.

While the GABS beers can’t have been produced before the event the brews can be continued after the five sessions of tastings at the Melbourne Royal Exhibition Building.

And Stallwood plans to release the Flaming Lamington later in the year.

The event will also move to Sydney for a one-day session the following week.

They’ve given drinkers Australia. Now a band of beer aficionados want to give craft lovers the taste of the world.

BeerBud has created a strong niche in the brewing market with their ability to ship a variety of local concoctions across the country.

The team now wants to expand and take a few customers along for the ride.

BeerBud has launched a crowd-funding campaign designed to raise that would allow the company to import more beers from overseas.

“We’ve already identified thousands of beers from hundreds of breweries which we can get our hands on,” explains Andy Williamson, co-founder of BeerBud.com.au.

“But we need some help to purchase those beers up-front. So we’ve launched a crowd funding campaign where you can lend your support, vote for your favourite beers, and in return get 15% off an unlimited amount of beer for up to 5 years which is essentially wholesale prices.”

Supporters can choose between rewards offering beer at wholesale prices for one, three or five years, VIP access to pre-sales and special offers, or a mixed case pre-sale containing 16 of the best international beers they find.

Last year California based Stone Brewing Company raised US$2.5m on Indiegogo, setting a new record for most contributors to any campaign. Closer to home, New Zealand’s burgeoning craft brewing industry has led the boom in equity crowd funding, with Renaissance Brewing raising over NZ$700,000 in a week and a half and Yeastie Boys raising NZ$500,000 in under 30 minutes.

For more details go to www.beerbud.com.au/crowdfunding.

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