Today, the 21st of July is National Lamington Day in Australia, although I am not sure when a national day was actually created to celebrate this iconic Australian cake. I do know that the Variety Club of Australia uses National Lamington Day as a fundraising opportunity, to raise awareness of their charity work for children.

When hosting Australian food events overseas, lamingtons are probably the number one requested item by expatriate Australians. For those who don’t know, lamingtons consist of a square piece of sponge cake (usually at least a day old) which is cut in half and layered with strawberry jam and whipped cream. Both pieces are then sandwiched, then dipped in chocolate ganache and then coated in desiccated coconut. Like everything Australian there are numerous variations on this recipe but it essentially used up left-over sponge cake which was a common item at morning and afternoon teas for the non-working mums and on weekends back in the early 1900s.

Lamingtons are apparently named after Charles Baillie, 2nd Baron Lamington, who served as Governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901. However, the precise reasoning behind this is not known and stories vary. Lord Lamington was known to have ironically hated the dessert that had been named in his honour, once referring to them as “those bloody poofy woolly biscuits”.

Why not try making some lamingtons on the weekend for your friends and family. My recipe is slight different to the traditional lamington recipe, as I prefer to flavour the whipped cream with Wattleseed extract and substitute the strawberry jam for a homemade rosella jam. These native Australian flavours provide a really unique flavour and certainly make the lamington dessert authentically Australian.

Do try my Lamington Recipe.