Australians all let us rejoice!

Today is Australia Day.  A day when we celebrate all that's great about our wide brown land.  The opening line of our national anthem (that's the first line in the title, in case you're not an Aussie) tells us to rejoice, to be happy, to celebrate and who can argue with that!  Our anthem comes in for a bit of criticism every now and then, particularly the word girt, which just means surrounded and is an apt description considering Australia is an island.  A few years back, Adam Hills, an Australian comedian put it out there that it's not the most inspiring anthem, but I think it really is when you actually consider the aspirational nature of the lyrics.  The melody though, leaves a lot to be desired and this is where I wholeheartedly agree with Adam Hills.  He decided to sing the lyrics to an entirely different melody, that of Jimmy Barnes' 'Working Class Man'. You can sit back and enjoy that rendition here!!!

There are many Australia Day traditions - a backyard bbq with your mates, beach or backyard cricket, listening to the JJJ Hottest 100, dunny races, cockroach races, I could go on.  However, all that aside there are many more options food-wise than 'throwing a shrimp on the barbie'.  And who calls them shrimp in Australia anyway - prawns is more like it.  We love our lamb, particularly on Australia Day, as well as anything else on the barbie.  There's also damper, which has it's origins with our stockmen, swagmen and drovers, cooking it up over the coals of their campfires as they moved around the country. When it comes to sweets though, we will probably argue forever with our Kiwi cousins about the origins of the Aussie pavlova - hands off it's ours.

But Aussiest of all is the humble lamington. The lamington has many stories associated with it's invention, most of which centre around my state of Queensland and Lord Lamington who was the state's Governor from 1896 - 1901.  Over the years there have been many different flavours and fillings in lamingtons, but for me you just can't go past the original light fluffy sponge cake, covered in a chocolate coating and then sprinkled with coconut.  Only one word for it - yum!  The recipe that follows is a little on the lighter side (well the cake at least) and this was the first time I've made it. The cake itself was only about 2.5cm high (think lamington fingers from the supermarket) - as high as the sides on the lamington tin.  I cut the cake into 12 pieces (each about the size of a playing card), which meant I had a lot of the chocolate sauce leftover.  If you cut your lamingtons smaller than mine, then you may need all the sauce, otherwise consider a half batch of sauce or double batch of cake.  It wasn't as messy as I thought it could be, you just need to be organised. 

Happy Australia Day!

Lamingtons
4 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup plain flour
1/4 cup cornflour

1. Place eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and beat with electric beaters until thick and creamy (about 10 mins).  You are looking for a pale yellow colour and for the mixture to be about 4 times the original volume.
2. Gradually add the sugar and beat until the sugar has dissolved.  You can test this by rubbing a small amount of the liquid between your thumb and finger and it shouldn't feel gritty.
3. Sift the flour and cornflour together.  Gently fold flour into egg mix, until just combined.
4. Pour mixture into a greased and lined lamington tin (16 x 26cm).  
5. Bake at 180C for 20 minutes or until golden.  
6. Remove from oven and allow to cool in tin for 5 minutes.  Then, remove from tin and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.  Remove paper and slice to desired size.

Chocolate Sauce
150mL boiling water
1/2 cup cocoa
275g icing sugar
lots of dessicated coconut

1. Combine cocoa with boiling water. Stir until smooth.
2. Add icing sugar and stir until smooth.

ASSEMBLY

1. Place coconut into a wide bowl.  Place a tray under your wire cooling rack (to catch the drips).
2. Skewer a piece of cake with a fork.  
3. Hold it over the sauce bowl and spoon the sauce over it until it is completely covered. Allow excess to drip back into bowl.
4. Then hold over coconut bowl and spoon coconut over.  Shake off excess.  Place on wire rack until they are set.
5. Refrigerate or eat!

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