Lamington cake

Lamington Cake

250g butter, softened
1 1/2 cups (330g) caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
2 1/2 cups (370g) plain flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder, sifted
1 cup (80g) desiccated coconut
1 cup (250ml) milk
1/2 cup raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 160C. Grease and line two 21cm round cake tins.
Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer for 10-12 minutes or until pale and creamy. Gradually add the eggs and beat well.
Add the flour, baking powder, dessicated coconut and milk and beat until well combined.
Split the mixture between the two tins, and place in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool on wire racks.

Chocolate frosting

100g butter, softened
500g cream cheese, room temperature
2 cups (320g) icing sugar, sifted
1/2 cup (50g) cocoa, sifted

Beat the butter and cream cheese together in an electric mixture for 8 minutes, or until pale and creamy. Add the icing sugar and cocoa and beat (on a slow setting at first, otherwise you’ll disappear in a cloud!) for a further 8 minutes, or until fluffy.
You can make this frosting a day in advance and store in the fridge, but be sure to return to room temperature before piping onto cakes.

To assemble, pipe a little ring of chocolate frosting around the bottom cake using a dotting action (piping bag terminology escapes me!). Be sure to do so a little inside the edge, so that when you sandwich the cakes together, the frosting doesn’t come oozing out. And don’t use too much either, as you want to ensure you’ve got plenty of room for lots of jam.
Then spoon your jam into the centre of the cake. You want to use a full-fruit-flavoured jam (not a crappy supermarket variety that’s full of sugar, not fruit), and one that’s not too thin. Place the second cake on top, pushing down firmly until your frosting is just at the edges. Then pipe your frosting on the top layer in concentric circles, starting from the outside edge and working your way into the middle. I use a really large nozzle and a dotting action to achieve the little mountainous mousse-y peaks.

Note: I used the chocolate frosting in the middle layer to help the cakes stick together, and not slip and slide around on the jam. But you could do away with it, and have the jam oozing out of the centre and over the bottom cake. You’d have to serve fairly quickly after assembly though, or it could end up looking like a big mess.

View our recipe conversion guide for further hints and tips.