Homemade raspberry lamingtons are cubes of warm milk sponge cake dipped in raspberry jam and coated in shredded coconut.
In case you aren't familiar with them, lamingtons are an Australian food: cubes of sponge cake dipped in either a chocolate or a fruit syrup (often made from Jell-O crystals—I kid you not), and then finished with shredded coconut. My version uses my all-time favourite hot milk sponge cake recipe (which we call Zilla's cake) and a quick homemade jam (because I'm obsessed with jam). You can either coat all the sides of the sponge, or just top and bottom. It's entirely up to you.
Honestly, you can't go wrong with these lamingtons, and I wish I had gotten to this recipe sooner because sponge cake dipped in jam and covered in coconut is a pretty genius idea, if you ask me. This sponge cake is a great base for trifles, like this apricot trifle, holiday eggnog trifle, or for a raspberry framboisier cake.
To bake the sponge cake, I used a 9x9-inch square cake pan (it might actually be a brownie pan). Take the time to prepare the cake pan before baking, by buttering the pan and dusting the sides with flour. This way your cake will slide right out of the pan, without any resistance.
Raspberry lamingtons
Ingredients
Sponge cake
- 125 mL (½ cup) whole milk (3.25 % fat)
- 15 mL (1 tablespoon) unsalted butter
- 5 mL (1 teaspoon) pure vanilla extract
- 2 large egg(s)
- 200 g (1 cup) granulated sugar
- 125 g (1 cup) bleached all-purpose flour
- 5 mL (1 teaspoon) baking powder
- 0.625 mL (⅛ teaspoon) Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
Quick jam
- 150 g (1¼ cups) Fresh raspberries, fresh or frozen & thawed
- 63 mL (¼ cup) water
- 30 g (2 tablespoon) granulated sugar
Finishing touches
- 50 unsweetened shredded coconut, sweetened works too, if you prefer!
Instructions
Make the sponge cake
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour a 9x9 metal baking pan Chicago Metallic on Amazon)
- Warm the milk with the butter to melt them together in the microwave or a small saucepan. Add the vanilla and set this aside to cool.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (I have also done this successfully with the paddle attachment!), beat the eggs and sugar until they are light and fluffy and creamy coloured (this takes a good 5 minutes of beating), then add in the salt.
- Sift the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl.
- Add the flour mixture, alternating with the warm milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour.
- Transfer the cake batter to the prepared pan and bake for about 35 minutes until the sides are golden brown and pull away from the pan, and a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Unmold after 5 minutes onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Prepare the quick jam
- Mash together the raspberries and water in a microwave safe bowl, and heat them in the microwave for 1 to 2 minutes to extract the juices. Purée the raspberries with a hand blender and strain the juice into a medium saucepan.
- Add the sugar and heat to cook and thicken the jam. I cooked the jam to 215ºF.
- Transfer to a bowl and let cool.
Assembly
- Cut & trim the cake into 25 cubes (~1.5"x1.5").
- Dip the bottom & top of each cube in the quick jam, smoothing off any excess, and then in the coconut.
ahu says
I've never heard of a Lamington before but it looks delicious and bite sized - love it!