Lamingtons

        I made these cute Lamingtons for the Baking Eggless Group by Gayathri for this month.She gave the option of either chocolate lamingtons or lemon lamingtons and I chose the chocolate one.This Australian delight is basically a small square of sponge cake that is dipped in a sweet chocolate icing and then rolled in desiccated coconut. 
        Though there are many versions of how it got its name, I find this one interesting.The maid for Lord Lamington (eighth governor of Queensland) accidently dropped a sponge cake in some melted chocolate. To avoid the sponge cake becoming messy, they added coconut.The result was this delicious new invention, named after Lord Lamington.
       Coming to the recipe the challenge is to make the eggless sponge cake. Though I have tried some versions of eggless cake using condensed milk,yoghurt etc , I wanted to try something different this time and I adapted my eggless sponge cake from here and I got a soft,spongy cake.I followed the recipe for chocolate icing from The joy of baking and I halved it as I made a small cake. I felt the dessicated coconut is the highlight of this cake which transforms this cake to a yummy treat.

Ingredients:

 Eggless sponge cake:

All Purpose flour	1 cup
Corn flour	1 tblsp
Powdered sugar	3/4 cup
Butter	50 gms
Milk/Evaporated milk	1/3 cup
Baking powder	3/4 tsp
Baking soda	1/4 tsp
Vanilla essence	1 tsp
Aerated soda (I used plain soda )	100 ml approximately
Egg replacer  :       1 tblsp water+1/2 tblsp oil+1/4 tsp baking powder

Chocolate icing:

Icing sugar	2 cups
Cocoa powder	1 ½ tblsp
Butter	1 1/2 tblsp
Milk	¼ cup

Coating:
1 1/2 cups dessicated coconut.

Method:

For the Cake:

• Preheat oven to 180 ºC.Grease a baking pan with butter and dust with flour.
• Sift Flour,baking powder,baking soda twice and keep aside.
• Cream butter and sugar well till light and fluffy.Add the evaporated milk or milk,vanilla essence and beat well with a whisk.Take the ingredients for the egg replacer in a small bowl and whisk well.Add this to the butter-sugar mixture and beat well.
• Add the flour and mix once.Now add the aerated soda little by little and mix with a whisk.No need to beat it vigorously.Just gentle mixing is enough.Add Soda till you get thick flowing consistency of the batter which forms ribbon like pattern when poured.
• Pour the batter in the greased pan and bake at 180 ºC for 20-25 mins or till toothpick inserted in the center comes clean.If You feel the top is browning fast ,cover loosely with an aluminium foil after 15 mins and bake.
• Once done cool in a rack ,cut into desired size squares.

For the icing:

• Place the icing sugar, cocoa powder, butter and milk in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir the mixture well till it becomes smooth and is of pouring consistency.Allow it to cool down to room temperature. I kept it in the fridge for some time to speed up the process.

Assembling the Cake:

• Take the dessicated coconut in a plate.   
• Take a piece of the cake ,dip it in the chocolate icing and shake once so that excess icing drips and immediately roll it in the dessicated coconut.
• Allow it to set for some time and enjoy.   

Note:

• I have only given the approximate amount of aerated soda used. 
• Increase or decrease the cocoa powder in the icing to your preference.
• The icing may thicken after some time. If it becomes very thick,again keep it on top of simmering water to get the right consistency.
• Allow the cake to cool completely before dipping it in the icing.If you feel the cake is not firm try refrigerating it for sometime before dipping.