Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Re-Inventing the Lamington 2011 - Chocolate Caramel Lamingtons


Mr P of Delicious Delicious Delicious has once again challenged us to Re-Invent the Lamington. As an Aussie, I believe that it is my civic duty to make a contribution, especially as many of the people who enter this event have never tasted or even heard of a lamington before. And Australia Day is just around the corner on 26 January!

For some more basic information about the lamington, see my earlier post on lamingtons.

The inspiration for my reinvention of the basic lamington, the Chocolate Caramel Lamington, is the Caramello Koala:


The Caramello Koala is a kitschy-cute koala shaped chocolate, filled with flowing caramel, and made by Cadbury:

Although he tastes gorgeous, I won't give you a peek inside because no Caramello Koalas were harmed in the course of making these lamingtons. Instead, I made two slabs of chocolate butter cake:

spread the bottom layer with dulce de leche (or, getting a little less fancy, cooked condensed milk):

and sandwiched the two layers of cake together:

I then let the sandwiched cakes chill in the fridge for around half an hour (because filled cake is mighty slippery), then cut it into cubes:

dipped the cubes in chocolate icing, and rolled them in coconut. And lo, we have chocolate caramel lamingtons:


For intellectual property reasons, I cannot name them after the Caramello Koala or its more adult cousin, Caramello chocolate.

The recipe that I used to make the chocolate butter cake is from the Margaret Fulton Cookbook, which you can find reproduced online here. (I originally tried using cocoa instead of melted chocolate for the chocolate flavouring - this did not give the cake the desired chocolate colouring, so I don't recommend it.) Margaret is an Australian cooking icon, so it is fitting that I used her cake recipe for this very Australian treat. The recipe for the dulce de leche is David Lebovitz's baked version, which you can find here. Baking the condensed milk in the oven spares you from exploding cans and nasty burns from wildly spurting hot caramel, often associated with making dulce de leche on the stovetop.

The icing is just 2 cups of sifted icing sugar, 3 tablespoons of cocoa, 1/2 teaspoon of butter and 3-4 tablespoons of boiling water. You need your icing to be runny enough to dip and coat the cakes, but not so runny that it doesn't stick, so you may need to play with the quantity of water. After dipping the cubed cakes into the icing balanced between two forks (which can then be used to roll the cakes in the icing to coat them), roll the coated cakes in dessicated coconut, which will help to set the icing and give the lamington its characteristic woolly appearance. The forks are also important because they prevent cake crumbs and coconut from being transferred from your fingers into the icing, which causes it to clump. The coconut-coated cakes are then placed on a wire rack to set, which allows the excess icing and coconut to drip off.


Here are the lamingtons with my mate Caramello Koala posing in front:

A cross section of the chocolate caramel lamington appears at the top of this post.
Mr P is offering prizes for the best two reinvented lamingtons, so if you fancy a shot at winning, get your thinking cap on and make your own reinvented version of the lamington. You have until Australia Day (26 January) to enter. Mr P will also feature a round up of the reinvented lamingtons after the competition has closed.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm one of those who has never heard of a lamington. They look and sound delicious!

Johanna GGG said...

what an excellent lamington - mr caramello would be proud of you - maybe this year I can participate in this event - don't think I have ever made lamingtons by myself but of course have helped my mum!

cocoa and coconut said...

Oh my goodness! This is such a great idea. As an 'Aussie' I'm really excited by this new take on lamingtons. Plus, you're right, Australia Day is so soon. This is perfect!

Mr. P said...

You know how exciting it is to find lamington entries in my google reader? It puts winning the lottery in the shade. Not that I have ever won the lottery mind you, but still.

I LOVE THEM! Bravo you.

(I have had one of those koalas btw - we have a similar thing in the UK, but it is frog shaped and he's called Freddo.)

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

OMG that is brilliant! I think it sounds even better than the original lamington! :D

Cakelaw said...

Mr P, we have kidnapped Freddo and taken him to Oz, but in deference to Caramello, you can't get a caramel Freddo - only milk, white, peppermint and strawberry.

Sarah @ For the Love of Food said...

Oh I love this! I didn't think anyone should mess too much with the lamington but you've done us proud :)

adele said...

"They call me Caramello Koala..."

I don't like lamingtons, as a rule. Too dry and boring once you get past the outer layer. *These* lamingtons, though... yes, please!

astheroshe said...

Awesome! I love the little Teddy :) ..and caramel is one of my favs to eat :)

Cakelaw said...

LOL Adele - I can't remember that ad, but when I gave my Pilates instructor one of these lamingtons tonight, she sang the jingle - too funny.

Anonymous said...

That caramel chocolate koala is so cute. I love Cadbury, especially the sugary-sweet creme eggs they roll out at Easter. I've never heard of a Lamington, so this recipe is interesting. I usually don't think of chocolate and coconut together in a cake. However, I do like your dulce de leche filling! Great post!

blackbookkitchendiaries said...

this is so pretty..i love eating them so much because of the coconut:)

The Blonde Duck said...

I'd never heard of those! They sound amazing!

Unknown said...

What a cool idea, reinventing the lamington. I love your interpretation.
*kisses* HH
p.s. that little chocolate is so cool. They dont have it in the UK, but we have a cadbury chocolate thats small like that called Freddo and and its shaped like a frog. Its plain milk chocolate. Do u have that in Australia?

Cakewhiz said...

That chocolate koala bear is adorable! I haven't seen those in chicago *sighs*

I really like the sound of this chocolate/coconut combination. I bet those lamingtons tasted brilliant!

Juliana said...

Lamington? Never heard of this...but they sure look good...squares of yummie chocolate cake :-)

Maris (In Good Taste) said...

Oooh fun idea! I love how creative these are.

Anonymous said...

These look delicious, and I love how cute the Caramello Koala is!

The Caked Crusader said...

I really need to make lamingtons - your yummy post has given me the kick up the backside I need!

Cakelaw said...

Hi CC, you should re-invent the lamington!

Deeba PAB said...

Happy Australia Day my friend, and I love civic duties like this! Well done with these lamingtons! They are excellent. Love the flavours you got in there! Mmmmm