Myeightkiddies Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 We have a young lady missionary (she is from Australia) who will be having dinner at our house on Friday. She's had dinner with us before, but this time I thought I would surprise her and make Lamingtons (she's been away from home for almost a year). I'm not sure what type of cake to use. Most recipes that I've seen have stated sponge cake, but when I search sponge cakes on the net I find that they are all cooked in round angel food cake pans (round with a hole in the middle - like a bundt pan). I need it in a square or rectangle pan in order to make them. I'm also looking for any helpful hints or tried and true variations/recipes, especially from any Aussies. I thought about a Pavlova, but I thought Lamingtons might be the better to make this time. She'll probably eat dinner with us a few times. Any other good Aussie snacks/desserts that could be made in the US? I know ANZAC biscuits require golden syrup so I'll have to figure out a substitute. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Upennmama Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 I had a professor in college who brought us Lamingtons, and she used regular pound type cake, covered in chocolate frosting and little multicolored sprinkles. She was Australian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maplinmum Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 A lamington sponge is a fairly dense sponge cooked in a 20cm by 30 cm tin , a 4 egg sponge would cook for about 25 mins. It is easier to use day old sponge as it stands up to the dipping and rolling a lot better. Search for a lamington recipe and you should get an Australian Women's Weekly or CWA recipe complete with sponge recipe. Also the icing needs to be runny so that you can dip the sponge into it to coat it, another option would be to make lamington style cupcakes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myeightkiddies Posted July 22, 2014 Author Share Posted July 22, 2014 A lamington sponge is a fairly dense sponge cooked in a 20cm by 30 cm tin , a 4 egg sponge would cook for about 25 mins. It is easier to use day old sponge as it stands up to the dipping and rolling a lot better. Search for a lamington recipe and you should get an Australian Women's Weekly or CWA recipe complete with sponge recipe. Also the icing needs to be runny so that you can dip the sponge into it to coat it, another option would be to make lamington style cupcakes. Thank you. I found a recipe at Australian Women's Weekly. It calls for 1/3 cup (50grams) corn flour. We don't really have that here other than some used for tortillas, which I think is a bit different. A few sites stated that if the recipe is from Australia or the UK we should use US corn starch. Typically the US uses corn starch as a sauce thickener. I'll give it a try. I'll probably make the cake on Thursday to dip on Friday so that it can hold up better. Thanks for the suggestion. I'm thinking about putting a strawberry or cherry jam (preserves) in the middle before dipping/rolling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 Here is our favourite lamington recipe 185 g butter (room temp) 3 eggs 1 1/2 cups self raising flour 1/4 cup cornflour ( This is the same as what you would call cornstarch) 1 1/4 caster sugar ( superfine but not icing sugar) 2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest 1 teaspoon vanilla extract combine butter and eggs in bowl, add all other ingredients and mix with electric mixer. spoon mix into a well greased and lined lamington pan (30 cm x19 cm) bake for 30 minutes at 180 o Celsius. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan. to make sauce 2 cups icing sugar 1/3 cup coca 1/4 cup orange juice 1/4 cup boiling water 2 teaspoons orange zest 1/2 cup desiccated coconut ad all ingredients except the coconut. cut cooled cake into 24 even portions. using 2 forks carefully roll cake in sauce, allow excess sauce to drip off then roll in coconut. allow to set on a cake cooling rack with a tray underneath. leave to set for at least 1 hour they are very messy to make but very yummy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 I forgot to add that all my cup measures are standard metric cup measures Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 You can substitute a dark honey for golden syrup, or part honey and part treacle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 I know ANZAC biscuits require golden syrup so I'll have to figure out a substitute. Thank you! I make ANZAC biscuits all the time with honey instead of golden syrup. just because we have honey form our own hive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 Thank you. I found a recipe at Australian Women's Weekly. It calls for 1/3 cup (50grams) corn flour. We don't really have that here other than some used for tortillas, which I think is a bit different. A few sites stated that if the recipe is from Australia or the UK we should use US corn starch. Typically the US uses corn starch as a sauce thickener. I'll give it a try. I'll probably make the cake on Thursday to dip on Friday so that it can hold up better. Thanks for the suggestion. I'm thinking about putting a strawberry or cherry jam (preserves) in the middle before dipping/rolling. It is the same thin\g. we use it to thicken things as well as use it in some cake recipes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myeightkiddies Posted July 22, 2014 Author Share Posted July 22, 2014 Thank you all so much for the recipe and suggestions! I'm really excited and hope she is surprised. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myeightkiddies Posted July 26, 2014 Author Share Posted July 26, 2014 Thank you all for the advice. The Lamingtons were a success! She was so surprised and loved them! She shared stories about when she had them at home. While eating them she said she felt as if she was at home. Next time I'll try to make her a Pavlova. She usually has one on her birthday. I didn't try to convert. I just made an Australian's Women Weekly Classic Lamington recipe using the Aussie measurements with our US cups. I figured that it would all scale fine, and it did. The sponge turned out well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 What are you going to put on your pavlova? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 Or peppermint crisp. Cream is mandatory and should go without saying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umsami Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 That was such a nice thing to do. I know and love pavlovas…but I have not tried Lamingtons before. Re: the fruit…it's very hard to find passionfruit here in the States (at least in my experience.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 That was such a nice thing to do. I know and love pavlovas…but I have not tried Lamingtons before. Re: the fruit…it's very hard to find passionfruit here in the States (at least in my experience.) Kiwi fruit and strawberries are still respectable options. Some people can pull off tinned peaches, even. No passionfruit in tins? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 What an incredibly nice gesture! So glad it went well. And now I will have to try making Lamingtons... :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 Thank you all for the advice. The Lamingtons were a success! She was so surprised and loved them! She shared stories about when she had them at home. While eating them she said she felt as if she was at home. Next time I'll try to make her a Pavlova. She usually has one on her birthday. I didn't try to convert. I just made an Australian's Women Weekly Classic Lamington recipe using the Aussie measurements with our US cups. I figured that it would all scale fine, and it did. The sponge turned out well. :hurray: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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