I haven't felt much like baking this past week since having my wisdom tooth removed. It's not been great week, but at least the weekend is now fast approaching.
As I was up at an ungodly hour and unable to go to the gym I decided to try my hand at baking some lamingtons, I have never made then before and love coconut and love cake, so this seemed like a great choice. My recipe was for lamington wedges, instead o the usual square, I think I'll make the squares next time as the wedges were difficult to keep whole.
The recipe I have used came from two different books as the book I was using for the lamingtons said to use a ready made sponge, so I had to bake one of those first.
The Recipe - Sponge Cake from Stephanie Alexander's The Kitchen Companion
5 eggs at room temperature
150g plain flour plus extra for dusting
60g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup caster sugar
Method
- Preheat the oven to 160 degrees, butter a 24cm cake time and dust with flour.
- Whisk up the eggs and sugar in a bowl until thick and mousse like.
- Sift the flour on top of the egg mixture and fold in with a large metal spoon.
- Trickle the melted butter down the side of the pan and fold in using a large metal spoon.
- Poor the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden and springy to touch. place on a wire rack to cool.
For The lamingtons from Chocolate Indulgence Book
40g Cocoa powder
250g icing sugar
125ml bolling water
30g unsalted butter
180g shredded coconut
Method
- Trim the top and sides from the cake and cut into wedges.
- Sift the flour and cocoa into a large bowl and make a well in the centre.
- Add the butter to the boiling water and stir until melted, pour mixture into icing sugar and stir until combined.
- Spread the coconut out onto a large plate.
- Dip the sponge into the icing, shake off any extra icing and place onto the coconut. Roll over until each side has a good coating and pace on a wire rack
For a first try these turned out really tasty, a light and springy sponge cake helped soak up the chocolate icing and gather good helping of coconut. Not bad for a first try.
Last week whilst having breakfast in Cranked in Leederville I spotted upon their menu a breakfast item called monkey business. The description was something like 'Toasted banana bread with raspberries and almonds served with a ricotta, yogurt and vanilla topping.
Just add raspberries and I'm in!! What was delivered to be was two huge slices if you could call them that they were so thick, that looked heavy but were utterly delicious. The ricotta topping freshened up the already moist, fruit and nutty bread. There was too much for just me, this is the type of bread to share with a friend.
I have been thinking about this bread ever since and so have tried to amend a recipe to produce something similar. I used a Simple Banana Cake recipe from Stephanie Alexander's 'The Cooks Companion'.
The Recipe - Banana Cake with Raspberry and Almonds
125g softened unsalted butter
11/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe banana
few drops of pure vanilla extract
250g plain flour
1 tsp bicarb of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/2 cup of butter milk or 1/2 cup milk with 1 tsp lemon juice
1 hand dessicated coconut
1-2 hands frozen raspberries
1-2 hand toasted almonds
The Method
- Butter and flour a 22cm square cake tin (I used a loaf tin), then line the base with baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
- Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs banana and sugar.
- Sift the dry ingredients and add to the mixture, alternating with buttermilk.
- Stir in the toasted almonds, coconut and raspberries until just combines.
- Spoon into a tin and bake for 1 hour or until a fine skewer inserted comes out clean.
