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Want to make Thermomix lamingtons?
With Australia Day coming up we head to the kitchen to test a great recipe for Thermomix lamingtons. In Episode 90, we experiment with four different variations, and report back with our findings! If you love a lamington, read on!
Click on the play button at the top or download this in iTunes or on Stitcher Radio (and don’t forget to leave a review – it really makes our day!)
We only chose one recipe this week, but tested 4 different variations of it! The batter will fill your bowl – it makes quite a lot of lamingtons! The chocolate dipping sauce is absolutely perfect for this recipe (and if you have any left, whiz it up with some milk for a milkshake!) The recipe tester feedback about this recipe is that it leads to a delicious lamington. It’s easy to follow, cost effective, and yummy. What more do you want? The recipe we used has great easy-to-follow steps. Click the link below to find the recipe.
Recipe – Thermomix Lamingtons (from The Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard)
What is a lamington? 
In its most basic form, a lamington is a cake dipped in chocolate and covered in coconut. Of course, there are many variations, and we have learnt on our Facebook page, that there are many personal preferences surrounding lamingtons.
- Butter cake or sponge cake for the inside?
- Plain cake, or a layer of jam and / or cream inside?
- Covered in chocolate, or something else?
- Shape – squares? Fingers? Very important to determine your preferred sponge:chocolate ratio!
Quick poll: Do you prefer your lamington…A: Traditional – cake covered in chocolate icing and coconut. B: Filled with a layer of jam, cream or both.
Posted by The 4 Blades on Tuesday, January 12, 2016
We learned from the Australian Lamington Appreciation Society that the story behind lamingtons goes something like this:
There was a maid-servant working at Government House in Brisbane when Lord Lamington was the Governor of Queensland. One day, she accidentally dropped the Governor’s favourite sponge cake into some melted chocolate. Lord Lamington was not a person of wasteful habits and suggested that it be dipped in coconut to cover the chocolate to avoid messy fingers. Lord Lamington devoured this new taste sensation with great delight and the maid-servant’s error was proclaimed a magnificent success by all!
Our Experiment
We created four batches of Thermomix lamingtons, each with a different variation that we are commonly asked about.
- Gluten Free Flour + Baking Powder, using Nuttelex instead of Butter
- Gluten Free Flour + Baking Powder, using Butter
- Plain Flour + Baking Powder, using Butter
- Store-bought Self-Raising Flour, using Butter
Here is what we discovered:
Gluten Free vs Wheat Flour Thermomix Lamingtons
Experiment notes:
– We halved the quantity of the GF batter.
– Batter was thicker when GF flour was used.
End result:
– No significant difference in taste noted between GF and wheat flour batches.
Nuttelex vs Butter Thermomix Lamingtons
Experiment notes:
– Butter batter more yellow, otherwise no significant visual differences in the batches pre or post cooking.
– Both were cooked using GF flour and in a loaf tin (due to the reduce batter size).
End result:
– The butter batch led to a slightly more dense cake. Taste testers preferred the taste of the butter batch, but were happy with both. It was still a good option.
Thermomix Lamingtons with storebought self-raising flour vs plain flour + baking powder
Since having our TM we have always used 1 tsp of baking powder in plain flour instead of using self-raising flour. Just one less thing to have in the cupboard. We make our own baking powder using the recipe in the ‘Make Your Own’ Bonus Issue, available to all subscribers of The 4 Blades Magazine. Is it a good replacement?
What makes baking powder?
Bicarb Soda (alkaline) + a weak acid (e.g. tartaric acid, or cream of tartar) + a starch (e.g. tapioca). The starch helps to absorb moisture, and thus prolongs shelf life by keeping the alkaline and acidic components dry so as not to react with each other prematurely. A dry powder also flows and mixes more easily.
Our store-bought self-raising flour for this recipe had 4 raising agents in it:
339 – Sodium dihydrogen phosphate (thickening agent / emulsifier)
341 – Calcium dihydrogen phosphate (causes baked goods to rise)
450 – Tetrasodium diphosphate (salt for food additive / thickening / emulsifier)
500 – Bicarb Soda
Experiment notes:
– We didn’t have two of the correct tins (25x35cm) for this, so the self-raising flour went into a rectangular ceramic baking dish of smaller dimensions. By the end of the cooking time, the self-raising flour looked like a volcano! It had risen much more. This could be related in part to the smaller baking dish.
End result:
– The batch using plain flour + baking powder had a lot more air pockets / worm-holes in it when cutting into it. It’s important to note that the recipe required 2 tsp of baking powder anyway, so 5 tsp of baking powder were added, in total. We wonder if we should have reduced the baking powder : plain flour ratio to take into account the extra baking powder.
– The store-bought self-raising flour was the preferred cake in the taste tests. Our taste testers reported that it led to a lighter cake.
The Results
Overall, the feedback for all versions of this recipe was good! We can recommend making this recipe!
The favourite version was achieved by following the base recipe exactly – using the store-bought self-raising flour.
The second favourite version was using Gluten Free Flour with Butter!
The feedback on the chocolate ganache was excellent across the board.
Here are some cool tips from this podcast…
– Heating milk took just as long to get to 80C using ‘Varoma’ as the setting, and using ’80C’ as the setting, but the milk had stuck to the bottom a little bit when it was set to ‘Varoma’.
– Looking for an alternative to chocolate covering? Try dipping them in cooled (but not set) jelly!
Feedback on the Podcast
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Do you have a favourite Thermomix lamington recipe that you use? Or one that doesn’t use a Thermomix? A favourite variation? Cream or no cream? Jam? Let us know in the comments below!