Little Lime Lemon Lamingtons

                            little lime lemon lamingtons 

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Lemon Lamingtons??? Lamingtons are traditionally cubes of sponge cake dipped in chocolate icing and rolled in coconut, but according to the Wikipedia entry on Lamingtons 'The raspberry variety is more common in New Zealand, while a lemon variety has been encountered in Australia.' 

Just as I was thinking "this Australian has never encountered a lemon lamington", I opened a new Australian Women's Weekly cookbook "Cakebaking" and there on page 32 is 'lemon lamingtons'. Have I missed a trend? 

My broken ribs are still healing and in a "now we have one I baked previously" moment I whipped out a lemon buttercake from the freezer. Plus with more limes in the garden at the moment than lemons it seemed natural to make a batch of lime/lemon butter too. Put the two together and we have my version of a lemon lamington...

bumper crop of limes in the garden this year

Little Lime Lemon Lamingtons

Ingredients

1x plain lemon butter cake or sponge cake cut into cubes (I used a ruler as a cutting guide)

1x batch of lime/lemon butter (recipe below)

2 1/2 cups shredded or desiccated unsweentened coconut 

desiccated and shredded coconut

Method

Pour your lime/lemon butter into a pie dish. Place the shredded coconut on a dinner plate. Dip cubes of cake firstly into the lime/lemon butter, then gently roll in coconut.

You can serve them straight away, but I think they are nicer when you allow them to sit for a short while to allow the lime/lemon butter to sink into the cake a little.

Lime Lemon Butter (Curd)

 Makes 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients
3 large egg yolks
Zest of one small lime and 1/2 of one lemon
1/4 cup of lime juice
6 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons butter, cold and diced

Method
Combine yolks,  zest,  juice, and sugar in a small saucepan. Whisk to combine. Set over medium heat, and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, making sure to stir sides and bottom of pan. Cook until mixture is thick enough to coat back of wooden spoon, 5 to 7 minutes.

Remove saucepan from heat. Add the butter, one piece at a time, stirring with the wooden spoon until consistency is smooth. Strain.
Transfer mixture to a medium bowl. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd to avoid a skin from forming; wrap tightly. Let cool; refrigerate until firm and chilled, at least 1 hour. Store, refrigerated in an airtight container, up to 2 days.

Adapted from Martha Stewart's lemon curd

Robot Tea Infuser

My best friend and I both love our tea infuser robots, they're not super practical for everyday use as you can only use large leaf tea inside your robots stomach. But, but, but they make you smile and do look cute just hanging around.

Happy Baking :)

Raspberry and Tangelo fruit butter recipes Fruit butter/curd tips and storage.

Fruit Curds and Butters

Fruit curds or butters are simple to make and a great introduction to preserving. 

I use them for cupcake and mini tart fillings, but they are as equally good spread on a crumpet served with a cup of tea, stirred into yoghurt or spooned over a dessert. Baked yellow buttermilk cupcake filled with raspberry curd, then iced.

My favourites are flavours are raspberry and tangelo, though feel free to substitute lemon, lime, orange for the tangelo, ruby red grapefruit makes lovely curd too. Or try strawberries or blackberries instead of the raspberries.

Tangelo Curd

Ingredients
Makes 1 1/2 cups

3 large egg yolks
Zest of 1/2 a large tangelo
1/4 cup of tangelo juice
6 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons butter, cold and diced

Method
Combine yolks,  zest,  juice, and sugar in a small saucepan. Whisk to combine. Set over medium heat, and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, making sure to stir sides and bottom of pan. Cook until mixture is thick enough to coat back of wooden spoon, 5 to 7 minutes.

Remove saucepan from heat. Add the butter, one piece at a time, stirring with the wooden spoon until consistency is smooth. Strain.
Transfer mixture to a medium bowl. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd to avoid a skin from forming; wrap tightly. Let cool; refrigerate until firm and chilled, at least 1 hour. Store, refrigerated in an airtight container, up to 2 days.

Adapted from Martha Stewart's lemon curd

Raspberry curd
Makes just over 2 cups

Ingredients
500g (1.10 lb) of Raspberries 
225g (1/2  lb) of white sugar
60g (2oz) of salted butter diced
2 large eggs beaten

Method
Put a quarter of cup of water and the raspberries in a saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Rub the mixture through a sieve to remove seeds.

In a double boiler or a heat proof bowl over a pan of simmering water set on the lowest heat possible, whisk the raspberries, sugar, butter and egg until the sugar has dissolved.

Swap to a wooden spoon and continue to simmer; until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the wooden spoon. Remove from heat, give it another stir, if you feel it's too thin pop it back on the heat for another minute or two. Remember it will thicken on cooling. 

Strain. Pot in sterilised jars or if you are using it within the week a covered container is fine. Refrigerate. 

Note: you don't ever want a curd to boil, it will result in curdled (bits of cooked egg) in your curd. If you do get a any sign of bubbling, remove curd pot from stove an submerge base of pan into iced water.

Make combed chocolate curls