Re-inventing the Lamginton - the Rolled Laminglova

You may remember last year that I participated in the delightful Mr P's Re-invent the Lamington challenge. It was so much fun and I delighted in making jelly cakes although I would have loved to win the Welsh dragon cookie cutter. There were some amazing things done by other participants in the challenge. There were many that I would love to make but I just haven't gotten around to it. I was super excited to see that Mr P is holding his Re-invent the Lamington challenge again this year and offering another excellent prize. I really wanted to participate again this year. 

I knew, after the creativity of some of last year's entries that I would really have to step it up a notch in the creativity stakes. While the shaped jelly cakes were good they were still a bit traditional. My first thought, since it has finally started to heat up here, was to do ice cream lamingtons. Since I have the ice cream attachment for my KitchenAid now I thought that it would be perfect to use that. However looking at last year's entrants in the challenge there was already an ice cream lamington. Although that one was different to what I had been thinking of making I decided to make something else. 

Lamingtons are considered quintessentially Australian so I sat down and had a bit of a think about what else is considered quintessentially Australian and came up with the pavlova. I love pavlova, and they are so easy to make. I considered just making mini pavlovas and stacking them on top of a piece of sponge cake with some cream and coating with chocolate icing and coconut as normal. I decided not to go that way for a couple of reasons, the first being that I wasn't sure how the pavlova would stand up to being rolled in chocolate icing and coconut. I thought it may start to disintegrate. The other, more important, reason was that I thought that the whole thing would just be unbearably sweet. Sweet to the point of not being able to eat it and what would be the point of that. 

I have always wanted to try making a rolled pavlova. A pavlova mixture baked in a swiss roll tin and then rolled up with cream and and fruit. I decided that this would be a much better option with some whipped ganache piped on top and then sprinkled with toasted flaked coconut it would become a Rolled Laminglova. First I made the ganache. 

Whipped Ganache

• 100g good-quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped     
• 20g unsalted butter 
• 1/3 cup  thickened cream

1. Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and place over low heat, stirring occasionally, until melted and combined. 
2. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before placing in the fridge to chill completely. 
3. Once chilled and thickened, use electric hand beaters to beat until thick and creamy.

I then made the pavlova:

Rolled pavlova

• 4 egg whites
• 1 cup (200g) caster sugar
• 2 tsp cornflour
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1/2 cup thickened cream
• 1 tbsp icing sugar mixture
• 2 passionfruit 
• 1 punnet strawberries, hulled & sliced
• Caster sugar, extra, to dust 
• Toasted flaked coconut 

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 25x30cm Swiss roll pan with baking paper, allowing the sides to overhang.
2. Whisk the eggwhites in a clean, dry bowl until firm peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating well between each addition. Continue whisking until sugar completely dissolves. Add the cornflour and vinegar and gently fold with a metal spoon until just combined. Spoon into the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes or until meringue just starts to brown.
3. Place a clean tea towel on a clean work surface. Top with a large sheet of baking paper. Dust lightly with caster sugar. Turn the pavlova, top-side down, onto the dusted baking paper. Set aside for 20 minutes to cool.
4. Meanwhile, whisk the cream until soft peaks form. Add the icing sugar and passionfruit then gently fold to combine. Spread the passionfruit cream evenly over the pavlova and top with half the sliced strawberries in rows about 2 cm apart. Starting at the short edge carefully roll pavlova, using the paper and tea towel as a guide, to enclose filling. Keep pavlova wrapped in baking paper and tea towel. Transfer to a tray and place in the fridge for 1 hour to chill. 
5. Remove from fridge, unwrap and place on serving plate. 
6. Place whipped ganache in a piping bag with a large star tip and pipe onto the top of the pavlova in whatever design you prefer. Sprinkle with toasted coconut.
7. Serve with remaining sliced strawberries. 

Lamingtons

Right from the start of this blog I knew that there was going to be the occasional "off-script" posts. That is, posts that have nothing to do with delicious. magazine (at least not with the next issue in line). The discovery of the blog Delicious Delicious Delicious and the Re-inventing the Lamington challenge was actually the second push to starting a blog of my own. The chance to win a cookie cutter in the shape of the Welsh dragon was just too much to resist and I just had to post a contribution.

The challenge was to come up with a variation of the quintessentially Australian lamington. The little squarish blocks of sponge cake coated in chocolate icing and then rolled in dessicated coconut. I love a good lamington but they can be hard to come by. Most of the time ones that are bought in shops are dry and/or tasteless as the cake has been made from some sort of packet mix or they have been sitting on the shelves so long that the cake is stale. You will have better luck purchasing at markets, fetes and stalls as they are usually homemade with fresh ingredients. There is also the lamington drive, in which lamingtons are sold (usually in half-dozen packs) for fundraising. This is normally done by primary schools, girl guides and scouts with the lamingtons being homemade, at least in the country areas.

I am sure there are plenty of variations that could be done however Australians already have their own popular variation, the Jelly Cake. A jelly cake is a basically a lamington except instead of being coated in chocolate icing the cake is dipped in partially set jelly prior to rolling in coconut. Normally a red (raspberry, strawberry or cherry) jelly is used which adds a lovely pink tinge to the coconut.

I decided to go with jelly cakes for my entry. However since the prize is a cookie cutter I decided that instead of the usual squarish blocks of cake I would cut the cake with my Australian cookie cutters.

I made the cake last night with some lovely free-range eggs that were just a gorgeous rich yellow colour that frothed up beautifully and produced a lovely sponge perfect for turning into my Aussie shaped jelly cakes.

This morning I made up the raspberry jelly and while it was chilling in the fridge until it was starting to jell, I put the cake in the freezer to firm up a bit to make it easier to use the cookie cutters on. I took the cake out after 30 minutes but I think that it would have been better if I had left it a bit longer. I didn't have too much trouble cutting the shapes out but some of the cake didn't lift off the baking paper properly. A bit of caster sugar on the paper before turning out would have helped with this I think.

When the jelly was ready I poured some shredded coconut (I prefer it to dessicated) into a bowl ready to go and got started. I hadn't counted on how much the jelly would soften things like the legs and tails of the animal shapes and they didn't hold up as well as I had hoped but the Australia shaped ones worked beautifully. Once they were coated in jelly and coconut I left them for the jelly to dry out a bit before attempt to move them again.

The recipe I used came from the Australian Women's Weekly Kitchen cookbook.

Lamingtons

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 150 g caster sugar
• 50 g cornflour
• 75 g plain flour
• 50 g self-raising flour

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180 C (160 C fan-forced). Grease a 20cm x 30 cm lamington pan , line with baking paper, extending paper 5 cm over long sides.
  
• Beat eggs in medium bowl with electric mixer about 10 minutes or until thick and creamy; gradually beat in sugar, dissolving between additions. Fold in triple-sifted flour.
  
• Spread mixture into pan; bake about 35 minutes. Turn cake immediately onto a baking paper-covered wire rack to cool.

Just perfect for Australia Day.