Lamingtons

Lamingtons were always one of those goodies you would always find at a school bake sale. It's really an Aussie tradition just like the meat pie and pavlovas. I can remember whenever my brother's school had a lamingtion drive our house would be full to the brim with lamingtons. Lamingtons in the cake container, lamingtons in the fridge and lamingtons for later in the deep freeze! 

Now a lamington isn't too bad. Actually is a pretty good cake. A little sponge cake dipped in chocolate icing and coated with desiccated coconut. Sometimes even with a layer of cream sandwiched between the sponges. A bit messy to make, especially with it comes to the dipping in the chocolate icing and coating it in the desiccated coconut but that also can be alot of  fun part. 

The lamington has been around over 100 years and was made in honour of Lord Lamington (Charles Cochrane-Baillie), who served as the Governor of Queensland. It was made accidently when there was nothing to serve to some guest but some leftover sponge cake, and a bit of chocolate icing, and some desiccated coconut. Imagine that!

Lamingtons

125 g butter

3/4 cup caster sugar

3 eggs

2 cups plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 cup milk

icing

3 cups icing sugar

1 tbsp butter, melted

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup water

Preheat the oven to 180C.

1. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar using an electric mixer until it is light and creamy. Add the vanilla essence and mix well. Gradually add each egg on at a time and mix well. 

2. Sift the flour and baking powder and fold it into the butter mixture using a metal spoon. Alternate this with the milk and mix well.

3. Line a lamington tin (20cm x 30cm) with grease paper. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for about 25 to 30 mins or until cooked. Leave it to cool and refrigerate for about 2 hours or overnight.

Icing

1. Using a mixing bowl. Sift the icing sugar and cocoa. Add the butter and water and mix well until smooth, and slight runny.

2. Arrange the icing bowl, desiccated coconut in separate bowls. Prepare the cake by cutting it into small rectangles about 24 pcs. Using 2 forks, gently dip the cake into the icing and coat all sides with it. Drain off any excess icing and then roll the cake with the desiccated coconut. Gently pat the coconut onto the cake so that all the side are coated. Place it on a rack or a plate to dry and repeat for the other pieces. The whole process can be pretty messy when you dip the cake into the chocolate icing but the coconut will absorb most of the excess moisture from the icing.

3. When the cakes have been rolled in the coconut, place it in a container and refrigerate to firm it up. It should be ready to serve when it has been cooled for about 2 hours or overnight.

A slice of Carrot Cake......

First of all I'd like to wish all wonderful Mothers around the world a 

Happy Mother’s Day

I know I'm a little late on this one but after a weekend free from computers and lack of an internet line I'm back with my belated wish for all mothers, grandmothers and special people in our lives who deserve a special day of appreciation.

A special day where we can say:

• thank you for all the encouragement you gave me and seeing that I could be something better than I ever thought I could be
• for your honesty, support, laughter, patience, beauty and love you have given me all my life
• for reminding me that I am loved no matter what
• for knowing just what to say and when I needed to hear your words of wisdom
• for letting me learn from my mistakes and helping me pick up the pieces
• for being the daughter I am because of you
• and for showing me just how great a mum can be..... 

I love you mum

I've dedicated this my carrot cake to my mum ... it's one of her favourites!

Carrot Cake with Honey Cream Cheese 

1 1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

4 large eggs

3 cups of grated carrots (about 4 medium carrots)

1/2 cup walnuts (or pecans) roughly chopped

2 1/4 cup plain flour, sifted

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup sultanas

1/2 cup prunes, cut into quarters

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a 8 1/2' x 8 1/2' cake tin or a 23cm springform tin with baking paper.

2. Using a large mixing bowl, beat the vegetable oil, brown sugar and eggs until it is thick and creamy. Add the walnuts, sultanas, carrots and prunes and mix until well combined.

3. In another mixing bowl, add the plain flour, bicarbonate of soda and all the spices. Fold in the flour gradually into the oil egg mixture until all well combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 45-55 mins or until a skewer comes clean out of the cake. It should also start to shrink a bit on the sides of the tins. Bake it in the middle of the oven. Remove and let it stand for about 10 mins and then let it cool completely on a rack before putting the cream cheese icing.

Honey Cream Cheese

250 g cream cheese, soften

1/4 cup icing sugar, sifted

2 tbsp honey

1. Using a mixing bowl, mix the cream cheese, honey and icing sugar until smooth. Spread in over the cooled carrot cake. 

The honey cream cheese is actually my daughter's idea since she always likes cheese cake and it taste so much better than the usual lemon icing.

It took me a while to perfect this recipe and I just love making it for my mum whenever I get the chance to see her.

Mama's Ma Lai Goh (Chinese Steamed Sponge Cake)

I have many fond memories of my Mama (grandmother in Chinese) and whenever I think of her it's always food that pops into my head. She would always have something that she baked, steamed or fried in her kitchen for all of us grandkids. Sweets no way but only delicious homemade treats were her thing. 

She never wrote down how she made them. All her secrets are kept to memory and with her magical touch she would be in the kitchen whipping up batches of her goodies ready to eat at her house or packaged to take home. 

Whenever I got the chance I would sit down and just watch her do her thing. Every measurement was by sight and I would ask her "how much?". She would always say "just watch me" and I did. Countless times I would watch and write down all the ingredients and how she made them. She would sometimes call me up just to come over on a certain day to watch her make something. I guess passing down the her recipes down a generation but I think she just liked spending time together this way.

There are many of those treats I call my favourites but one clearly stands out and that's her Ma Lai Goh or Chinese Steamed Sponge Cake. It's a traditional Cantonese steamed sponge cake, light and fluffy, not too sweet,  caramel flavoured with just a hint of lemon. 

Mama's Ma Lai Goh (Chinese Steamed Sponge Cake)

250 g brown sugar

250 g self-raising flour

3 eggs

200 ml of carnation milk or evaporated milk

80 ml of vegetable oil

juice of a lemon

1. Using an electric mixer, cream the oil and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time and combine well. 

2. Fold in the sifted flour and alternate with the carnation milk.

3. Add the juice of a lemon and combine well. 

4. Prepare a greased round 23cm baking tin and pour the mixture into the tin. 

5. Steam the cake over high steam for about 25 - 30 mins or use a skewer to check if it is baked through. Remove from heat and let it stand for about 5 mins. Transfer to a rack and let it cool another 10 mins and then cut the cake diagonally into triangular shapes. Place the cake into a container for storage so that it doesn't dry up.