Lamingtons. Honestly, I'd never really heard of them until I bought Donna Hay's (amazing!) dessert cookbook Modern Classics II.Lamingtons are a popular treat throughout Australia and New Zealand, and are basically cubes of sponge cake that are dipped in chocolate and rolled in fine coconut. There's also a really pretty variation called a pink lamington, where the sponge cake is rolled in strawberry or raspberry jam instead of chocolate.
The cakes can be served as is, or split in half and filled with jam or cream.
Now, I've been meaning to try making lamingtons, but it wasn't until I came across a clipping in my recipe scrapbook that something finally clicked...
My new source of inspiration: a recipe called "Individual Strawberry-Jam Cakes" from an old Martha Stewart magazine. I figured that by dipping these cakes in some chocolate and coconut, I'd end up with lamington-style cupcakes, conveniently filled with a burst of jam in the center...
* * *
Notes: I really liked these, but they seemed huge to me, so half of one was more than enough...I think I might try making 12 smaller cupcakes out of this recipe next time, lol...Lamington Cupcakes
makes 6
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs, separated
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk
6 tablespoons raspberry jam / preserves
Chocolate Icing
3 cups confectioner's sugar
3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
6-7 tablespoons hot water
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 1/2 cups sweetened flaked coconut
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour a 6-cup cupcake pan.
Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
In another large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks and vanilla extracts until creamy.
Mix in the flour and milk in alternating batches...
...then, in a clean bowl with clean beaters, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gently fold the whites into the batter.
Fill the cupcake tins halfway with batter, make small indentations and fill each one with a full tablespoon of jam.
Top the cupcakes off with the remaining batter and bake in the preheated oven for around 30 minutes. Allow the cakes to cool completely before icing.
Dressing the cupcakes
Chocolate Icing:
Whisk the the confectioner's sugar and cocoa powder together to get out any lumps. Stir in the oil, then the hot water until a smooth icing forms:
Run the coconut flakes through a food processor or blender until finely chopped.
Now it's time for a little assembly line operation: dip a cupcake into the chocolate, letting the excess run off (I used a cooking fork to transfer the cupcakes from the chocolate to the shredded coconut, this let the chocolate drain off easier)...then immediately dredge the iced cupcake in coconut.
Place the cupcakes on a rack to set for around 20 minutes, just so the chocolate doesn't smudge :o)
That's it!
Enjoy!!
0 comments:
Post a Comment