Lamington Cake

 

I actually never ever heard about this cake before. Until I visit ncc-indonesia.com, which featured this cake in one of it's cake recipe. 

A lamington is a dessert of Australian origin. It consists of squares of sponge cake coated first in a layer of traditionally chocolate sauce, then in desiccated coconut. 

The ncc's cake is the one modified, with chocolate cake as the base cake. I then seek for further reference of this cake, which for me is quite easy to follow, and taste-wise look good, since it has a sweet, savory, and salty taste from chocolate and desiccated coconut. 

There are many variations of this Lamington cake, one of the example is the one ncc has. Most recipes also use jams to fill in its layer. They usually use strawberry jam to get the sour taste so the cake's taste would be very rich. 

For my starter Lamington cake, I choose to use Mardi Michels's recipe which features in Jamie Oliver's site. This recipe is very easy and you can use all ingredients found in your pantry.  

I did a modification, though. When the recipe calls out for 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder, I used 1 tsp of emulsifier. Since based on my experience, using emulsifier for sponge cake will give a better cake texture, and I also use my own chocolate icing recipe. It still tastes great, though. 

Ingredients

For the cake4 eggs
200g (1 cup) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200g (1 ⅓ cups) cake flour
1 teaspoons emulsifier
110g margarine, melted and cooled

For the icing
200 gr dark cooking chocolate
100 gr whip cream powder (I use wippy cream haan)
200 ml mineral water
50 gr butter

Topping
Around 6 cups of desiccated coconut

Directions 

For the cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F/180˚C/gas 2. Grease and flour a 22 x 22 cm pan, lining the base of the pan with parchment paper. 
3. Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl with an hand mixer (medium-high speed). Add emulsifier, then continue to mix until pale and thick (around 3 minutes). 
4. Sift the flour and baking powder over the egg and sugar mixture, and use a rubber spatula to gently combine the dry ingredients. 
5.  Add the melted butter, about ⅓ at atime, gently mixing with a rubber spatula until completely combined, then pour the mixture into the prepared pan.
6. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. 
7. The cake should spring back when lightly touched in the centre. Turn cake onto a wire rack to cool.
8. Cut cake into even, bit-sized pieces about 4-5cm.  You will probably end up discarding the edge pieces, as they won’t be completely square. At this stage you can refrigerate the cake for a few hours or leave the cake overnight in an airtight container, because a slightly less fresh cake will be easier to dip in the chocolate icing.
9. When you are ready to dip the cakes, set up an area large enough to accommodate bowls for the cake pieces, the chocolate icing, the coconut and also a large tray topped with parchment paper and a cooling rack. 10. You will need to work quickly to dip the cakes so having everything organised in advance will help.

For the icing

1. In a large saucepan, dissolve the whip cream powder with mineral water, then bring to boil. 

2. Add chopped dark cooking chocolate until all chocolate melt, and mix altogether. 

3. Turn of the heat, then add the butter quickly into the mixture. 

4. Working quickly, using a fork, dip the cake cubes into the chocolate mix and roll them around with the tines of the fork to completely coat. 

5. Drain any excess mixture off the cakes then drop them in the coconut and roll them around lightly to coat evenly with coconut. 

6. Set the cake cubes on the cooling rack placed over parchment paper to drain. You can refrigerate the cakes to help set the icing, then bring them to room temperature before serving.

Desiccated coconut
1. Buy the grated coconut in your nearest market. Trust me, it helps a lot! LOL. 
2. Place the coconut flakes in a food processor if you want smaller flakes. Add 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of salt with the coconut in the food processor if you want a salty one. 
3. Spread the coconut on a baking sheet, in a thin layer. Warm it in a 200F oven until dried. Make sure not to overbrown the flakes.