sf 2 oz

I had my first lamington last year in San Francisco at Danielle's baby shower (who is Australian) and I loved it! I'd forgotten about lamingotns until we arrived in Sydney and started seeing them at the store and in bakeries. I happen to be one of the few fans of Mounds (the candy bar), so obviously any treat with coconut and chocolate is right up my alley.

Here's a little history of the lamington that I found on Wikipedia. "Lamingtons are named after Charles Cochrane-Baillie, 2nd Baron Lamington, who served as Governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901. The Lamington's chef at Queensland's Government House, Armand Gallad, was called upon at short notice to provide something to feed unexpected guests. According to the Melbourne Age newspaper, Gallad cut up some left over French vanilla sponge cake baked the day before, dipped the slices in chocolate and set them in coconut (an ingredient not widely used in European cooking at that time). Lady Lamington's guests then asked for the recipe."

Belive it or not, there's a National Lamington Day in Australia - July 21. Two weeks from today! Also the National Trust of Queensland named the Lamington one of Queensland's favorite icons. Pretty funny that cake has that much history and notoriety.

Anyway, making lamingtons is easy (if you buy the sponge cake), but messy. Here's the recipe. Now we have 12 lamingtons to eat in the next few days...I think I may give some to our neighbors. Maybe.