Lex Culinaria: Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi!

I woke up this morning feeling very patriotic about my adopted second home. Hardly surprising given the outcome of the recent election here, eh? Political commentary aside, I did wake up this morning with the tune of Advance Australia Fair running through my head!

And do you know why, possums?

It's Australia Day.

In honour of Australia's birthday, I coked up a great Australian snack tradition: Lamingtons. And I have the burnt fingers to prove it!

Purportedly lamingtons were invented as a way for good Aussie housewives to use every last scrap of the left over cakes that might have gone a little stale. How all these Australian households had these acres of left over cake at risk of going stale is beyond me. In our house, cake never lives long enough to even contemplate getting halfway to stale.

I am not quite sure how this part of the history of the lamington - as a thrifty housewive's trick - meshes with the other part of lamington history - that it is named after Baron Lamington, but there you go. I'm sure it all fits together very neatly in an Australian sort of way. There may be beer involved.

Essentially, lamingtons are little squares of sponge cake sandwiched together with jam in the middle, coated with a chocolatey fondant icing and rolled in coconut. Sound easy? Let me explain the burnt fingers.... You see, it's virtually impossible to get the icing onto the little squares of cake - the cake is crumby, the icing is sticky. If the icing is too thick, it tears the surface off the cake. If its hot enough to be thin, you'll burn your fingers on the sugar. That is why, although I started with 60 little nude lamingtons perched hopefully on the counter, only 30 of the little buggers got chocolate and coconut coats. I give up. Besides, it's hard to dip the little cakes in chocolate when all your fingers are covered with massive heat blisters.

Lamingtons are tasty little treats, but very sweet. So unless you've got a real sweet tooth, or you're a fair dinkum Aussie with a lamington addiction and are on a huge nostalgia trip, the burnt fingers may not be worth it...

If you're still keen to try your hand at these - have a go at this recipe, but I'd suggest slightly more milk (or some rum or vanilla) in the icing mix so that it's a little runnier without being too hot. If the icing in the pot starts to set up while you're still working, just bung it back on the stove for a minute or two to melt it up a little.

I've been to cities that never close down
From New York, to Rio, and old London Town.
But no matter how far, or how wide I roam
I still call Australia home...

-Peter Allen