There is no cake more Australian than Lamingtons! A moist butter sponge dipped in chocolate then coated with coconut, this is The Cake sold at every suburban bakery and weekend fundraisers.
You’ll get coconut everywhere making them and eating them. But that’s all part of the Aussie experience. It’s how we do it Down Under! 🇦🇺
Lamingtons – an Australian classic!
A soft buttery sponge cake coated all over with chocolate icing and coconut.
Even if you’ve never heard of these before, you just know it’s going to be good. We Aussies know great tucker – and this is as Aussie as it gets!! (OK, OK, maybe as Aussie as Pavs, Anzac Biscuits, Sausage Rolls, Party Pies, weekend sausage sizzles and Sunday Roast Lamb😇)
How to make Lamingtons
On the face of it, it sounds simple enough:
make a buttery vanilla sponge cake
cut into squares, dip into chocolate icing, coat with coconut
The one little extra step I add that is going to make your Lamington making life a total breeze is to mostly freeze the cake before rolling in icing. A firm, semi frozen piece of cake is much easier to handle when coating in icing and rolling in coconut. Try doing it with fresh sponge, and you’ll be battling crumbling cake as you try to coat it. Been there, done that, multiple times!
The cake will thaw as the icing sets and the cake is as fresh as it was straight out of the oven.
Here’s a bit more background to explain why I freeze the cake before coating – to make sure I fully convince you so you don’t skip that step!
Why I Freeze The Cake before coating
Lamingtons are one of those cakes that recipes say are easy to make, but most are just downright lying to you. The first few times I made them involved screeches of frustration and serious foot stomping.😤 I emerged on the other side looking like I’d been in a mud-wrestle with a plate of something that barely resembled the neat squares you see in this post.
The challenge is this: The sponge has to be tender and moist enough to eat plain, but trying to roll such a delicate cake in icing is a disaster. The cake crumbles into the icing, making it thicker and impossible to work with.
And once the crumbling begins, imagine the mess when you try to roll it in coconut.
The solution offered by traditional recipes is to leave the cake out overnight, essentially letting the outside become a bit stale so it’s easier to handle. This works pretty well – but the cake is a bit drier than ideal.
The 21st century solution:
FREEZE THE CAKE.
It’s even easier to handle for coating, and the bonus is that the cake stays fresh and moist – no need to leave it out to dry out!
This will change your Lamington Life forever.
Butter Sponge Cake for Lamingtons
The sponge cake for Lamingtons is a terrific recipe that I use as a base for other recipes (strangely, none that I’ve shared here – yet). Simply made with pantry staples, it’s soft and buttery, and not too sweet which is what we want because we get extra sweetness from the chocolate icing.
The big debate:
Do Lamingtons have jam and cream?
Classic Lamingtons made the traditional old-school way do not have jam or cream sandwiched in the middle. But you’ll come across many Aussies who won’t have Lamingtons any other way (some RecipeTin family members included).
My view – Lamingtons should stand as a great cake without any filling. Jam and cream is optional – it should make it over the top good!
If you’re a Lamington fan, I think you’ll approve of this recipe! The butter cake is moist, tender and buttery. The chocolate coating is thick enough so you get a great hit of chocolate, but thin enough so it soaks into the sponge, a sticky enough to glue on plenty of coconut.
The added bonus is that using the little trick to freeze the cakes before coating, they are neat and tidy so they look as great as they taste! – Nagi x
PS It will be messy making these. And that’s totally ok. Because it’s part of the great Aussie tradition that you get coconut “everywhere” when you’re making them and eating them!
PPS When better to make Lamingtons than for Australia Day??
Lamingtons
Watch how to make it
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Lamingtons
Ingredients
Butter Sponge
- 125 g / 4.5 oz unsalted butter , softened
- 1 cup (220g) caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 eggs , room temperature
- 1 3/4 cups (260g) flour , plain/all purpose, sifted (Note 1)
- 3.5 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) milk (low or full fat)
Icing
- 4 cups (480g) icing sugar (confectionary sugar), sifted
- 1/3 cup (22g) cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp (15g) unsalted butter
- 150ml (1/2 cup + 2 tbsp) boiling water
Coating
- 3 – 4 cups desiccated coconut
Optional: Jam and Cream
- Strawberry jam
- 1 cup (250 ml) cream
- 1 tbsp white sugar
Instructions
Butter Sponge
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F (or fan forced 160C/320F).
- Sift flour and baking powder together.
- Grease a 20 cm x 30 cm / 8″ x 12″ cake pan. Line with baking paper (parchment paper), leaving an overhang on all sides (to make it easy to remove).
- Beat butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium high speed until light and fluffy – about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.
- Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition so the batter is smooth, not curdled.
- Add half the flour and gently fold to combine, then stir in half the milk. Repeat with remaining flour and milk.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Stand for 5 minutes then use the overhang baking paper to lift the cake out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
Prepare Cake to Coat
- Cut cake into 15 squares (5 x 3), or 18 rectangles. Freeze for 1 to 1.5 hours. (Note 2)
Icing
- Combine the Icing ingredients in a heat proof bowl and mix until smooth. Should be a syrup consistency, but not watery. (Note 2)
Coating
- Place coconut in a shallow bowl or pan with a largish surface area (Note 3).
- Place a piece of cake in the icing and roll to coat using 2 forks. Transfer it into the coconut and quickly roll to coat all over in coconut. Transfer to tray.
- Repeat with remaining sponges.
- Stand for 1 to 2 hours, or until set. Then serve with tea and coffee!
Optional: Jam and Cream
- Beat cream and sugar until firm peaks form.
- Cut coated Lamington in half horizontally. Spread with jam then pipe or dollop on cream. Top with lid, keep refrigerated.
Recipe Notes:
No cream: Store in airtight container for 3 to 4 days, or freeze for 2 – 3 months then thaw before serving.
Cream: Store in refrigerator for 2 to 3 days. 5. Nutrition per serving.
Barely adapted from this recipe from taste.com.au. Ingredients the same, the main thing I changed is the process (especially the coating process, to make it easier!)Nutrition Information:
Originally published 2014. Post refreshed with better photos, recipe video and process steps added. No change to recipe!
More Aussie Tucker favourites
- Pavlova – Meringue cake with marshmallow centre topped with cream and berries
- Sausage Rolls – Juicy pork filling encased in puff pastry. We think ours rivals Bourke St Bakery!
- Party Pies – Mini pies filled with slow cooked beef
- Scones – One of the best things the English brought to our shores!
- Caramel Slice – chocolate, caramel and shortbread. Home run!
- Sunday Roast Lamb with Gravy – also try this amazing Slow Roasted Leg of Lamb!
- Big bucket of fresh cooked prawns with dipping sauces – a summer favourite!
- Browse the Australia Day recipes collection!
Life of Dozer
You think it’s hard making recipe videos? Trying make them with THIS in your line of sight….
Hi Nagi,
Love your recipes & don’t know what I’d do without them.
On Australia Day, appreciate if you could please include some Australian First Nations recipes. Like duh!!
Given your recipe finesse, I’,m sure you can do that! Looking forward to it!!
Cheers,
Dee
I have to be honest Dee, I am not familiar with any (real) indigenous recipes! I’ve had the privilege of experiencing some when I was travelling in the Norther Territory and outback Australia. But I’m afraid my cooking repertoire doesn’t extend that far! N x
I have never even heard of “Lamingtons”! They look oh so delightfully tasty. This will certainly be something I will attempt to make. Thank-you for this recipe, Nagy. You still have the very best recipe website — I sing your praises often!
I’m very flattered Craig, thank you for the compliment! N x
Which cuisine do you like the best: Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese or Chines
I have to say Japanese otherwise my mother would disown me. But a close second is Thai then Vietnamese then Chinese 🙂 I also equally love real Mexican, Tex-Mex Mexican, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Malaysian, Indian, and Middle Eastern food! 🙂 N x
Happy Australia Day Nagi,
Thank you for the lovely recipe from a sponge cake or any kind of other cake lover, but especially a sponge cake. An old neighbour of mine used to make what she called Castle cakes which were in essence the same as Lemington but were little towers wrapped in raspberry jam and covered in coconut and they were to die for. I have tried a few of the recipes that you have put up but this one is a today recipe, ;D.
Poor Dozer, he looks so hard done by there and has the look of “come on Mum, just one wee crumb pleeaassseee”. What a gentle, big, lovely pup you have there flower. He has an army of fans that would give him a home in a second and one of them lives here in Scotland, hee hee hee.
Thank you flower for the great recipes and the time that you take to make them for us. Have a great time at the weekend celebrating,
hugs
Norah (Glenochil Village, Scotland)
Castle Cakes! I’ve never heard of them but I’m off to do a Google!!! PS Don’t feel sorry for him. 2 seconds after I was out of sight, he was rumbling in the back of the van with his friends. Totally forgot all about me! I’m so pleased you are enjoying my recipes Norah, thank you for taking the time to leave me such a lovely message! N x
BEautiful moist laminates ….,,yum❤️❤️
Thanks Liz! N x
Dozer you are too cute for words.
Great Lamingtons recipe neat trick to freeze the cake.
I have been watching the Australian Tennis from Toronto.
HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY..woof and hugs
He is a big fat sook. 😂
I’ve never had one but that will change shortly! Thank you for this divine recipe! Hugs from Seattle!
Hope you do get a chance to try these Jan! We’re very proud of Lamingtons down here! 😂 N x
Your lamingtons were divine, thank you. And so much better with cream and jam. I want it all!
I hear you Linda!!! N x
Hello!
I really like your recipes and stories. About this cake, I have to say that it is very similar to a Hungarian recipe, but we also have honey in our cake dough. https://www.nosalty.hu/recept/hazi-kokuszkocka
Have a nice day
Andrea
I love that!! I’ve never seen that before, thanks for sharing that Andrea! N x
Thank you very much your recipes are devine
You’re so welcome Dolores!
Love your recipes. Have tried many and have enjoyed every one of them. Planning on this one this week…..
Also, love the fact that you obviously love your dog Dozer – awesome! There’s something special about people who love their animals.
Keep those recipes coming Nagi, and continue to enjoy your Dozer friend….they are not with us forever.
Blessings
gail
I do, every day! He is the only reason I don’t travel even more than I already do! 😂
Buen día. Antes de nada, muchas gracias por su cocina, es fantástica.
Le agradecería si pudiera poner también las cantidades en gramos (gr), pues en muchos países de Europa medimos con gr.
Un saludo,
Carmen
Hi nagi!
No I don’t think reduce it. Because you don’t want to be scraping the last few squares in the sauce at the end. And also people may cut their lamingtons smaller and use more sauce. So I would leave it as it is ???????
THANK YOU!!! Now I’m going to tell my mum you said it’s FINE AS IS!!! 🙂 (Batty old woman, probably read the recipe wrong! 😉 )
Hi!
Made these today and they were really so so good. I was too impatient so I did the putting them in the freezer trick and it worked a treat. I have made them before and they were a disaster. The recipe I used (from a website I won’t name) said nothing about drying out the sponge so they were a soggy mess. Plus that recipe had a chocolate sauce that was far too thin. So I was turned off lamingtons. This recipe was PERFECT. See it’s all those extra tips that make the difference. I also loved the tip of leaving the sauce in the bowl on top of the water. Genius. Lamingtons will now be part of my repertoire! I put jam and cream in them. Soo good. Thank you once again Nagi ?????
THANK YOU JULES!!! I know exactly what you mean re: drying out sponge, that is exactly the problem I had ? I am so glad you enjoyed it!! My mother said there was too much chocolate sauce, I made it with lots to make it easier to coat, especially the last few. What did you think? Should I reduce the amount of chocolate sauce?? N xx
I LOVE lamingtons and hot cross buns. I’m an Aussie living in the US and they are not available here. I miss these two so much that I must make a batch of lamingtons soon. I made three batches of hot cross buns for Easter this year.
Love your blog. Thanks,
Monica
Woah. Hang on….seriously, no hot cross buns in the US?? What the…..???
Nope, not to the local palette. I even had to make my own fruit peel before I could get started. Was very delicious though.
Love a good lamington! But must admit I have not eaten one, nor made any, in years! Happy ‘Straya Day x
Thanks Lizzy! Happy Australia Day to you too!! 🙂
I have only heard of and seen lamingtons and never have had them. I would love to try these…thanks for sharing. Yours look perfect.
Thank you! They really are delicious! 🙂 I hope you do try them.
Whoa can resist a lamo besides my son. Love them.I made a batch and saved him 2. One of those is still sitting on the kitchen bench-2 days later
What?? Who does not like Lamingtons??!! Gasp!! 🙂
I really need to make these- Chocolate and Coconut. No I MUST make these. They are GORGEOUS! I bet they taste even better than they look! You know what? I think you made this just for me Nagi. Thanks.
Thanks Imma! I know you love coconut too, so yes, I think you will love the flavour of these!! 🙂
Aww I haven’t made lammos in ages. Will have to whip up a batch soon!
YES YOU SHOULD Helen! Bet yours kick mine 🙂