Chocolate Jam-n-Cream Lamington Cake

What’s better than a chocolatey, coconutty, cream filled, jam embellished lamington?

All of the above in a great big round Chocolate Jam-n-Cream Lamington Sponge Cake!

It seems so obvious when you really think about it. Ladies of the CWA and grandmas the world over (and of course your awesome baking men out there) have been rocking out Jam and Cream Sponge cakes since (well, since they were invented), and those same people have assayed many a lamington. Lamingtons are made of sponge, sponge cakes are made of (wait for it) sponge… so…

This is another cake that I have been meaning to make for a while. I saw a so-called “lamington cake” in a magazine a while ago, and I was incensed to note that the food editor thought that it was OK just to make a regular double layer sponge, spread some jam on it in the usual manner, fill it with cream, as countless of the people mentioned above have done for generations, then top it with a bit of chocolate icing and sprinkle it with coconut.

Forgive me for being finickity, but this is just cheating. Sure it might be easy to do, suitable for your harrowed care-giver who is in a rush, so suitable that you could even do it with supermarket purchased sponge rounds, but it is not fair to call it a lamington, which, as everybody knows, is completely coated in chocolate and coconut. Standards should not be allowed to slip, and I am here to make sure that there are Proper recipes for such items.*

My Chocolate Jam-n-Cream Lamington Cake has a couple of special twists. First, the icing has actual chocolate in it, not just cocoa, so there is a definite textural hit and a great depth of chocolate flavour. Second, as avid readers of this blog will understand, I have a particular bee in my bonnet (or I would if I wore bonnets) about there being Enough Jam. Generally there is not even close to Enough Jam in any given lamington (some don’t even have cream, and I’m really not sure how I feel about these items – I suppose if the cube of cake is wee enough it has a good coating-to cake ratio and therefore does not need cream per se). Therefore my Lamington Cake has what Enid Blyton would term “lashings” of both jam and cream. The jam is a lightly gelled fresh strawberry compote, scented with vanilla, bursting with all the best summery flavours that strawberries can yield, and less sticky-sweet than actual jam. The cream is stabilised so that it stands a good centimeter and a half in thickness, but doesn’t ooze all over the place when you try to cut the Lamington Cake.

I think the CWA would approve, and I would totally rock this out at a bake sale.

*I should add that if you’re harrowed and time-poor, you could always use shop-bought jam (just don’t skimp) and plain whipped cream – the cake will just be quite messy to cut!

Chocolate Jam-n-Cream Lamington Cake

Makes a 20cm round cake. Serves about 12.

It’s best to make this cake at least 8 hours (but preferably a day) before serving to give the components and then the assembled Lamington Cake time to set.

Sponge cakes

ingredients

60g self-raising flour
30g cornflour
30g custard powder
4 eggs
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

mixing

Grease (with butter!) and flour the sides of two shallow 20cm cake pans. Line the bases of the pans with bake paper. Sift the flour, cornflour, and custard powder together over a sheet of baking paper. Tip back into the sifter, and repeat twice more, then set aside. Beat the eggs and sugar together until thick and pale, beat in the salt and vanilla. Gently tip the sifted flour mixture over the egg mixture, and fold the flour into the egg mixture. I like to use the back of a large metal spoon for this process.

Spread an even amount of the sponge mixture into each pan and gently smooth the surface. Drop each pan down (from about a 5-10cm height) onto the counter a few times to break up any large air bubbles in the mixture.

Bake the sponge cakes at 190 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes. The sponges should be golden and the should have slightly shrunken away from the sides of the pan when they are done. Cool the sponges in the tins for about 20 minutes and then turn onto a wire rack. Peel off the paper lining and let the sponges cool completely.

While the sponges are baking, make the Strawberry Compote Layer

Once the sponges are completely cold, and while the compote is setting, you can coat the sponges in the lamington coating see below.

Once the compote layer and lamington coating is completely set, you can assemble the Lamington Cake.

Strawberry Compote Layer

This can be made ahead of time, you can add the gelatin and make the round disc of compote, or you can chill the compote, keep it for up to three weeks in a sealed container in the fridge, then heat it up and add the gelatin.

ingredients

500g strawberries
½ cup caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla powder (or 1 tsp vanilla)
2 tsp lemon juice

1 ½ leaves of gold strength gelatin (a standard size leaf weighs 3 g)

mixing

Hull and quarter the strawberries, then combine all the ingredients in a heavy based saucepan and cook over a medium heat, stirring often, until the mixture starts to boil.

Once boiling, continue to let the compote bubble for 8 minutes (and no more than 10!). Remove from the heat and using a slotted spoon, scoop out all the cooked berries and reserve. Return the strawberry syrup to the heat and, stirring all the time, let the syrup continue to boil for a further 4 minutes or until the syrup has reduced by about half. Return the cooked berries to the syrup, stir well and let the mixture bubble up once more. Remove from the heat and let cool. To hurry up this process I usually set the pan in a sink filled about 5cm deep with cold water. Remove about 1/4 cup of the compote and refrigerate in a sealed container for use in assembling the cake.

While the mixture is cooling, soak the leaf gelatin in cold water until it has swollen (about 10 minutes). Squeeze the excess water from the gelatin and add to the warm compote. Stir the mixture until the gelatin has completely dissolved.

Line one of the 20cm cake pans with cling wrap and spray lightly with non-stick spray. Tip the warm compote into the lined tin, making sure that the level of the compote is even all over the tin (it will be about 1cm deep). Place the tin in the refrigerator to set for at least 4 hours.

Lamington Coating

ingredients

40g dark chocolate (70% cocoa), chopped
3 tbsp boiling water
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 cup icing sugar

About 3 cups shredded coconut

mixing

Place the chocolate in a small bowl and tip the boiling water over the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted completely and the mixture is smooth. Stir in the cocoa. Place the icing sugar in a larger bowl and add the chocolate mixture. Stir until smooth. If the mixture seems a little thick, add a little more boiling water.

Tip the icing into a shallow bowl which is wide enough to allow you to dip the edges of the sponge cake into the icing. Place about half the coconut in a simlar bowl. Using a motion like turning a wheel, dip and coat the sides of one sponge in the chocolate frosting. Let the sponge drip a little, then repeat the same dipping and coating movement to cover the chocolate icing with the coconut. When the side of the cake is all coated with coconut, set the cake down on a wire rack to let the icing set. Repeat the process with the second sponge cake, topping up the coconut as needed.

Tip the remaining icing on top of one of the cakes and carefully spread the icing out to the edges of the cake, so that there is no visible sponge. Sprinkle the top of the icing liberally with the remaining coconut (you may not need to use it all) so that the top of the cake looks just as coated as the sides. Allow the icing to set, about an hour.

Meanwhile, make the stabilised whipped cream.

Stabilised Whipped Cream

200mL chilled whipping cream (35-40% milkfat)
1/2 leaf gold strength gelatin

Soak the leaf gelatin in cold water until it has swollen (about 10 minutes). Heat 25mL of the cream until it feels hot to the touch. Squeeze the excess water from the gelatin and add to the hot cream. Stir until the gelatin has completely dissolved, then combine in a large bowl with the main body of the chilled cream. Whip the cream until stiff peaks form.

Assembling the Lamington Cake

Place the bottom layer of Lamington sponge (the one with only the sides coated) onto a serving plate or cake board. Remove the strawberry compote layer from the tin and carefully peel the cling wrap away from the sides of the compote layer. Flip the compote layer onto the top of the Lamington sponge.

If you didn’t quite get the placement right, you can re-position using the cling wrap which is still stuck to the compote layer. Peel the cling wrap off the compote layer.

Load the cream into a large piping bag fitted with a round or star nozzle (I used a ribbon nozzle in the picture below to obtain the ruffled layers). Pipe the cream in a 1.5cm deep layer over the compote layer.

Flip the top layer of the Lamington sponge upside down, and spread the reserved compote on the exposed surface of the sponge.

Flip the top layer back, lamington-side up and gently place it over the cream layer.

Refrigerate the Lamington Cake for at least 2 hours, preferably more, before serving. If you didn’t have a lot of time for chilling, be very gentle when you cut the cake!

Enjoy!xxx

Chocolate Jam-n-Cream Lamington Cake