Thursday 28 July 2005

Nick's Double Coconut Lamingtons!

Ok, so I didn't innovate all that much, but I'm proud of using coconut cream in the icing to make them double-coconut (and lactose-free) lamingtons! (and I wanted to name it after myself :p)
I made this batch for Tanya, but let Sarah go down in history as the first person ever to try Nick's Double Coconut Lamingtons!
I reckon they turned out pretty darn delicious for a first effort :D

So, without further ado:

Nick’s Gluten- and Lactose-free Double Coconut Lamingtons


Sponge Cake
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 to 3/4 cup caster sugar
  • 1 cup cornflour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tbsp custard powder
  1. Preheat oven to 180C.
  2. Split the egg whites and yolks. Beat whites until stiff, then add yolks and beat until thick and creamy.
  3. Beat in the caster sugar gradually.
  4. Sift the cornflour, baking powder, and custard powder three times, then sift into the egg mixture. Fold through without delay but gently.
  5. Spread the mixture into a baking tin. Pick the tin up and drop it back onto the bench from about 10-20cm a couple of times to get large air bubbles out.
  6. Bake for 30-40 minutes (until a knife comes out clean).
  7. Stand for 5-10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.
  8. Refrigerate overnight before slicing into lamingtons.
While baking the sponge cake will rise lots, but it collapses back down afterwards. Apparently no flour is quite as good as wheat flour at making fluffy cakes. It makes a slightly denser than usual sponge cake, but still delicious and adequate for the task at hand!

Lamington Icing
  • 1/3 cup cocoa
  • 4 cups icing sugar (be careful, icing mix has wheat in it)
  • 1 tbsp butter (or margarine for non-dairy)
  • 2/3 cup coconut cream
  • 2+ cups desiccated coconut
  1. Mix cocoa and icing sugar.
  2. Melt butter in the coconut cream in a pan.
  3. Stir in the cocoa and icing sugar over a low heat.
It's much easier to coat the lamingtons when the chocolate icing is warm. I managed to do a batch before the icing cooled too much.

Lamingtons!
  1. Cut off the crusts to the sponge cake and cut it into squares.
  2. Set out the icing in one bowl, the coconut in another (wide) bowl, and a tray with baking paper to set the lamingtons on. Using two forks, dip a sponge square first in the chocolate icing and turn it to coat it evenly. Then quickly put it into the coconut and turn it over. Finally set it onto the baking paper.
  3. When all are done, refrigerate in an airtight container to set the chocolate icing.