Dearest Friends and Acquaintances,
On the morning of the 6th, my wife gave birth to our adorable baby daughter (and it's been a beautiful, if occasionally sleepless, twenty days ever since). You can imagine, then, that we didn't do much on the night of the 4th. As a matter of fact, I can only specifically recall doing two things: running my wife bath water, and making Lamingtons!
What are Lamingtons, you say? If you're one who celebrates ANZAC Day, you already know this, but for the rest of the world, here goes: they're sponge cake, dipped in chocolate icing and rolled in coconut. I like to think that I know a thing or two about Australia, and maybe half of something about New Zealand -- but I had no idea what Lamingtons were until someone mentioned them at an Aussie-rules football match in my neighborhood late last July (yes, they do play a bit of it in America). From that point on, curious about the dessert with the funny name (for one thing, there seems to be a letter E missing from it), I was determined to one day make Lamingtons and try them for myself.
Eight and a half months later, two days before my daughter's birth, the Lamington Project began. Here's an account of it in pictures.
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| Exhibit 1: Sponge Cake, before Cutting. Note to self: be sure to whip the egg whites before you mix them in with the yolks and the other ingredients. This cake didn't turn out so spongy. Bummer. |
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| Exhibit 2: Powdered Sugar, Cocoa Powder & Coconut. Second note to self: look harder for desiccated coconut next time. |
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| Exhibit 3: Sponge Cake, after Cutting. |
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| Exhibit 4: (from top right) Sugar & Cocoa; Milk & Butter; Coconut. Everything but the coconut went into the chocolate icing. |
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| Exhibit 5: Preparation of the Chocolate Icing. |
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| Exhibit 6: Dippin'. |
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| Exhibit 7: The Finished Product. They won't win any awards, but they were fun to make. I'll try again and get it right -- I just know it! Any and all advice on improvements is more than welcome. |
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| Bonus Clip: Party Started by The Cat Empire. What Men at Work were to Vegemite sandwiches, The Cat Empire may well be to Lamingtons. |
