Lamington Cake for Australia Day

It is Australia Day today, and a public holiday Australia-wide. It is a divisive day on the calendar, which many of you will be aware of.

I am marking the day with a Lamington Cake made from a quarter of this recipe, baked in a 6” tin.

 I used a half recipe for the icing and the cream, because I have found that a quarter recipe is not enough for a quarter sized cake.

I used cherry and black pepper jam in the filling - it waa great to have that pepper hit against  the sweetness.

To make this cake (full size), you will need:

250g butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs

3 teaspoons vanilla

2 1/2 cups plain flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

2/3 cups milk

Icing

2 cups icing sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 cup boiling water

20g butter

1 cup dessicated coconut

Filling

2-3 tablespoons raspberry jam

300ml cream, whipped with 1 tablespoon icing sugar

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease and line 2 x 20cm cake tins.

Cream the butter and sugar in a stand mixer. Beat in the eggs, one by one, then the vanilla.

Sift the flour and baking powder together, and fold into the batter alternately with the milk.

Divide the batter evenly between the 2 tins and bake in the oven for 45 minutes or until cooked through. Cool in the tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes before unmoulding and cooling completely.  Chill the cooled cakes in the refrigerator until ready to ice.

For the icing, sift the cocoa and icing sugar together into a bowl and put the butter in a well in the middle of it. Pour in the boiling water  and mix until smooth.

Ice the sides of one cake and the top and sides of the other. Sprinkle all over the icing with coconut. Allow the icing to set.

Spread the bottom cake (just iced on the sides) with the jam, then spread the cream over the top. Put the other cake on top of the cream.

Serve and enjoy.