Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Bloody Poofy Woolly Chocolate Lamingtons

My final set of Lamingtons. This time made with a rich chocolate cake and filled with a bittersweet whipped chocolate ganache.

I've taken Chuck's Lamington quote and broken it down into its essential components: the bloody, the poofy and the woolly. (Wasn't that a western?)

Anyway, to create the Lamingtons I glazed little two-bite ganache filled cakes with dark chocolate and then coated them in three substances I thought would be quote-appropriate.

The 'bloody' is made from left over cake crumbs from yesterday's Red Velvet Lamington. The 'woolly' is coated with shaggy chocolate jimmies. Finally, the 'poofy' being golden toasted coconut.

Now, I know that two of these Lamingtons lack coconut and I dared use chocolate cake for all three, but I can do that... right?

Some folks are serious about their lamingtons

Maybe not...

I got a comment on my Raspberry White Chocolate Lamington last night from a member of the Lamington Preservation Society, calling me out on my perverse rendition of such a sacred snack cake.

Seemingly, despite my use of coconut, chocolate (albeit white), jam and butter cake (all considered common building blocks of a Lamington) I was informed my snack cake was NOT a Lamington, it is just a cake.

Of course, this fuss over cake amused me greatly.

So, lets get down to the Laming... oh sorry, the "Just Cakes" shall we!




Not So Humble's Bloody Poofy Woolly Chocolate Just Cake-Cakes!

The base of these cakes is another one of Rose's Heavenly Cakes the final one I'll be doing out of her book on the blog. This is her devil's food and of course, like every other cake I've baked from the book, it has turned out divine.

Note: The filling for these cakes needs to be made the day before, so plan accordingly.

Rose's Heavenly Devils Food Cake:
adapted from Rose's Heavenly Cakes
yields roughly 30 lamingtons
1 oz bittersweet chocolate
63 grams dutch processed cocoa
1 cup boiling water
2 large egg yolks, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
225 grams cake flour
326 grams light brown Muscovado sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

In a medium heat-safe bowl combine the boiling water, the chocolate and the cocoa and mix until smooth. Place the bowl into the refrigerator to cool.

Butter and flour a 9x13 inch pan and line with a piece of parchment.

In a bowl, mix together the egg yolks, eggs, vanilla and sour cream and set aside.

In your stand mixer using the paddle attachment, mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt for a minute on low speed. Add the butter and mix on low speed until the ingredients are crumbly. Scrape down the sides and add the egg mixture, beating for 90 seconds until light and well blended.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl again and add the cooled chocolate mixture while mixing on low speed. Once added raise the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds, until slightly fluffy.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and with a couple of strokes from a silicone spatula scrape down the sides and bottom to mix in any remaining chocolate and then pour into the prepared pan.

Bake for 30-40 minutes until the cake springs back when lightly touched.

Remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Slide a offset spatchula around the sides of the cake to release and then carefully unmold onto the rack to cool completely.

Once cool, cut into small cubes, roughly 1.5-2" and they are ready to fill.



Not so Humble's Whipped Dark Chocolate Ganache:
190 grams dark chocolate, finely chopped
320 mL heavy cream

Bring the heavy cream to a simmer and pour over the chopped chocolate. Allow the mixture to stand for one minute and then gently stir to blend and dissolve the chocolate.

Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve, cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next day the mixture will have a thick, fudge like texture and will be ready to whip. Add the ganache to your stand mixer and using the whisk attachment beat until light and fluffy.

Split and fill your Lamingtons with the whipped ganache and then allow them to chill in the refrigerator for an hour before glazing.

Dark Chocolate Glaze:
8oz dark chocolate finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream

Bring the cream to a simmer and pour over the chocolate and allow to sit for one minute. Stir gently until smooth. Allow to cool until luke warm and syrupy and then glaze or spread onto your cakes.

If glazing, before reusing the glaze strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove any crumbs. Warm in the microwave for a few seconds to keep it fluid. For a thinner glaze use more warm cream.

Now the Lamingtons are ready to coat.

The amounts given for the following will yield roughly 10 of each type of Lamington:

Poofy Toasted Coconut Lamingtons: add 1 cup of desiccated coconut to a dry pan and toast over medium-low heat for roughly five minutes, stirring occasionally.

Allow the coconut to cool and fill a shallow dish. Dip the glazed Lamingtons into the coconut and then set aside to dry for two hours before serving.

Blood-Red Velvet Crumb Lamingtons: Process enough red velvet cake to yield one cup of crumbs in your food processor. Fill a shallow dish with them and roll the glazed cakes in the crumbs.

Set the cakes aside to dry for two hours before serving.


Woolly Chocolate Lamingtons: Fill a dish with 1/4-1/2lb of chocolate jimmies and coat each side of the Lamingtons. Set aside and allow to dry for two hours before serving.

35 comments:

  1. I don't care what they are called...they are gorgeous!

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  2. Are you sure you're a married woman, and mother to a sweet little girl? I am floored that you keep finding time for all these "Just Cakes" and other adventures. And is your darling daughter living off quasi-Lamingtons?

    The only way I can enjoy your blog as I do (with all it's amazingness) is to envision that you weigh a millions pounds from eating those yummy-looking concoctions. Please don't tell me you're a stick figure... I just couldn't stand it!

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  3. Bebe,

    Ha! Yea, it has been busy around here with the baking in the evenings. My husband cooked dinner the last two nights so I could deal with baking and tonight we just ordered a pizza.

    I'm glad to be done with the lamingtons because they were a lot of work.

    Oh and I hate to break it to you, but I am both tall and slim. Though, my butt would easily get large enough to affect the tides if I ate even a fraction of the desserts that pass through my kitchen. I bake, photograph and then hand off the desserts to others as fast as I can.

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  4. Hmmm...if only I were your neighbor, to enjoy the fruits of your labors!

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  5. All of your Lamingtons look divine! Fantastic job on the baking and photography :)

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  6. Hello just popped in to say hello from the home of Lamingtons, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. I saw a photo of your Lemon Meringue Lamingtons at tastespotting and had to investigate further. I have never made my own lamingtons and I don't know anybody who has. The reason for this is they are boring. They are something you really only see in supermarkets here or suburban bakeries. You could not go to a nice cafe and expect to be able to order a lamington. And every Australia day there is a surge of enthusiasm for the national cake. Thank you for reinventing this tired idea. It probably was a great little recipe in the nineteeth century and up to and including the sixties. But the lamington definately has to move with the times. I will definately be having a try at making your White Chocolate and Rasberry Lamington. Brilliant!

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  7. Thanks, Theresa! Now I feel better about my variations on the lamington theme.

    For the record, if any Aussie--or anyone for that matter--wants to take on the Twinkie and make it edible, they have my permission.

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  8. I detest all form of fanatical extremism.....particularly when it comes to Lamingtons.

    GIVE ME YOUR NORTY CAKIES!!

    THEN BAKE MORE AND GIVE ME THOSE TOO!

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  9. I once made "normal" lamingtons and all I got were some little, square, less-than-exciting cakes, and a whole lot of mess. Yours look quite frankly amazing and I suspect they taste better than mine too. Must try them....

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  10. Dearest Ms Humble,

    I must be one of the few Aussies alive today who have experienced the ancient 'art' of the Laminington bake and make. I just so happen to reside in the same great city as Theresa. Although I have to admit I grew up in small farming community out 'west'. Total city girl now though.

    Some the best times I had as a kid was while helping Mum bake and make my most favourite treat, the Laminington.

    Dipping the sponge squares into the chocolate 'sauce' (leaving them soak for just a little longer to make sure for the most chocolately delicious 'bark' around the soft crumbly sponge), then rolling in coconut and laying them gently on the cake rack. Ready and waiting to be packed into trays for the local Lammy drive, into the cake tin for school lunches or, best of all into my hungry mouth!

    I don't recall if Mum made them from scratch all the time, but most times she baked the sponge and a day or so later came the dip and dunk.

    Yummo!

    Laminingtons are certainly not as boring when you can help in the creation of this delicious treat. I have now been inspired to get in a make some of this national dish for our national Day in a few weeks. Perhaps not from scratch, but I am certainly going to dip and roll to my hearts content, then share them with my friends.

    Thanks for the inspiration oh lady of the cake, and thanks for sharing your baking experiences.

    :)
    Kristine, Bne, Qld, AU

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  11. Things that do not adapt go extinct...including old recipes. Good for you! They look absolutely decadent. I come to your blog for my daily sweet fix so I don't have to ingest any around here!

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  12. These are awesome! I love the "Shaggy" chocolate jimmies. That's too funny. They really do look wooly!

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  13. Wow, they are amazing, and if it's a preversion of traditional Lambingtons, then so be it! They look SWEET! (in the literal and street sense).

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  14. I think I've just died and gone to heaven. How long is a flight from Dallas to Seattle, and could I get there in time to sample?!?! :)

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  15. Those are so cute! I also loved the idea of taking that Chuck guy's Lamington quote and calling the cakes the bloody, the poofy and the woolly :) And woah at being contacted by those folks about the whole thing... Some people take their cakes very seriously indeed :) I can understand them though, maybe if one was to serve those at some restaraunt it'd be better to come up with new names so that people don't get confused, but since it's your personal blog I believe you can call them whatever - it's just your personal take on the good ol' Lamington!

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  16. I've also wondered how in the world you find the time to do all this awesome baking and cooking when you have a toddler! AND you are tall and skinny?! Man, you must be superwoman. And your desserts always look so professional. I indeed spend a lot of time baking but I just would not have the patience to create each one of these little lamington masterpieces. They each look so perfect .....or is that just the ones that made it into the photographs? I don't know, maybe the rest look really crappy.

    As always, love reading your blog and thanks for the mention of my blog the other day. Boy, the hits on my blog counter sure went up that day! Wow!

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  17. I don't have the patience either, Heidi. (I only decorated a fraction of the cakes. Don't tell anyone!)

    I've got to cut corners somewhere to find time to be a wife and mom so with these, it was decorating a quarter of the cubes, getting my photos and then calling it quits.

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  18. I saw your Lamington photos on Tastespotting, and never having heard of them before, I had to look. Now I'm having so much fun following along with all the different kinds - each more beautiful than the last! The lemon meringue one is stunning!

    Great work!

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  19. People are so sensitive!!! Will you please come to my house and make me some of these lovely treats?!?! I'm 5 months pregnant and could really use them! haha

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  20. Those are so cute. They look like chocolate covered marshmallows. I have never heard of a Lamington. Thanks for the info + new dessert to try.

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  21. Very creative. Nice twists to the Aussie favorite. I'm sure Lady Lamington would have been pleased.

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  22. It's about time!!...As a dyed in the wool Aussie, heading into Australia Day the Lamington was always the poor cousin to the fancy pastries, finally you have elevated the poor stale leftovers onto a thing of beauty and flavour, yes I wll be baking at least one of your variations for the 26th and I thank you for taking on the traditionalists and making over the icon of Aussie Bake Sales into something someone actually wants to eat!!

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  23. These are beautiful!! I love the ones rolled in jimmies and cake crumbs the most. YUMMY!

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  24. I'm happy to agree with my fellow Australians on this one. Your "just cakes" have far more claim to being Lamingtons than the dry, over-processed things passed off as Lamingtons in supermarkets and bakeries here. The red velvet ones look particularly appealing.

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  25. Hello!
    I have absolutely fallen in love with your blog! I love you science cookies! Thank you for always giving me something yummy to look at in the morning! :)
    Do you happen to have an excellent stuffed bell pepper recipe?

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  26. These look terrific - and as you are "re-inventing the lamington", of course coconut is not necessary.

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  27. i posted about these on my blog! im obsessed. check it out:

    http://www.heatherinacandyshop.com

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  28. these sound great... regardless of their true being! who knew one could be so uptight about great food!

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  29. Man you DO wanna win! I just found out about the competition and have been googling lamingtons trying to decide what to make but,your lamington play to win has got me worried! *gulp*

    LOVE that cartoon by the way, people do get very protective of food

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  30. I was reading your blog and almost fell off my chair laughing at the mention of the sacred snack and the Lamington Preservation Society

    I'm an Aussie and like most are glad to be a part of a multi cultural society where most recipes are an adaptation of something else.

    So please ignore the nay sayers and continue to make your wonderful creations

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  31. Makes me so happy to hear that some Aussies do like my little cakes! Thanks, Jacqui.

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  32. I'm with Jacqui. I reckon those people getting uppity must never have had a stale bland lamington from Coles, with dry, flavourless coconut that just gets stuck in your teeth. Chocolate sprinkles sound alright in my book!

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  33. Greetings from Melbourne, Australia...where we've clearly got more delicious lamington action going on that Theresa has experienced.
    I'm under 40 and have made lamingtons many times, as well as ordering them in many cafes over the years. My favourite comes from a cafe in Camberwell that makes them with Madeira cake, fills them with jam and uses a chunky grated coconut. Boring? No way.
    Variations? All recipes have to be flexible enough to adapt to changing tastes.
    I actually find that if I'm not wanting to spend an entire afternoon making lamingtons, I will make the cake and freeze it. Then when I want to make a batch of lammies, I just need to defrost it, make the chocolate sauce and then it's just a matter of dipping and coating in coconut.
    I often fill mine with ganache. Dammit, now I have a craving.

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