Right up front, I am going to say this recipe is awesome but it takes a bit of time. It takes 3 simple recipes, that can each be used individually, and combines them to make taste sensations. This Chocolate Lovers Lamington Recipe is so worth the effort. And you also get 3 recipes in 1 – winning all round.
Cake Ingredients
- 2 frozen bananas
- 120g butter
- 1 tspn vanilla extract
- 1 tpsn rice malt syrup
- 1 cup self raising flour (I used Orgran Gluten Free)
- 1 tpsns baking powder
- 2 tblspns cacao powder
- 100g milk
Cake Method
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a lamington / slice tin
- Melt the butter over medium heat, and remove from heat
- Blitz the frozen bananas until creamy in a food processor
- Add butter, vanilla extract and rice malt syrup to banana butter mixture and mix until well combined
- Add remaining ingredients and mix well for about 1 minute
- Spoon mixture into tin, smooth top with spatula or tap the tin on the bench top to settle the mixture
- Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean
- Whilst the cake is cooking start making the vanilla butter cream and the chocolate butter cream frosting
- When the cake is cooked, remove from oven and allow cake to cool in the pan before removing from the tin
- The cake is now ready to be assembled using the vanilla butter cream and chocolate butter cream frosting.
Vanilla Butter Cream Ingredients
- 3 medjool dates
- 2 tblspns butter
- 1 tpsn vanilla powder
- 1 tbspn milk
Vanilla Butter Cream Method
- Soak the dates in hot water for 15 minutes
- Drain the dates and blitz in a food processor until most lumps are gone
- Add the butter, vanilla powder and milk, blitz until creamy and mostly smooth
- The vanilla butter cream is now ready for assembling
Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting
- 3 medjool dates
- 2 tblspns butter
- 2 tblspns cacao powder
- 1 tbspn milk
Tip – if your family are only just starting out on reducing sugar and sweetness, then you may wish to add a small amount of a sweetener e.g. rice malt syrup
Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting Method
- Soak the dates in hot water for 15 minutes
- Drain the dates and blitz in a food processor until most lumps are gone
- Add the butter, cacao powder and milk, blitz until creamy and smooth
- The chocolate butter cream frosting is now ready for assembling the lamingtons
Assembly Ingredients
- 1 cake
- 1 batch vanilla butter cream
- 1 batch chocolate butter cream
- Desiccated coconut
Tip – have a fork handy to help with rolling the lamingtons into the coconut
Assembly Method
- Cut the cake in half along the long size of the cake
- Spread the vanilla butter cream on one half of the cake, then top it with the other half
- Pop this in the fridge for 5 minutes – this is not 100% necessary but just helps firm up the butter cream to make the next assembly step easier
- Cut the cake into lamington squares – I cut mine into lunchbox size (about 2-3 mouthfuls)
- Place desiccated coconut on a plate
- Using a spatula or a wide knife, spread the chocolate butter cream on 3 sides of the lamington
- Pop the lamington onto the coconut plate with the unfrosted side face up
- Gently spread the frosting onto the last side
- Now using the fork, roll the lamington around in the coconut until all sides are coated
- Gently using your fingers, pick up the lamington and gently tap it on the plate to get off excess coconut
- Repeat with the remaining pieces
Storing / Freezing
Pop the lamingtons into an airtight container and store in the fridge or freezer. These are great eaten straight from the fridge or at room temperature. You can pack them straight from the freezer into the lunchbox too.
2 More Ways
- Cook the cake in smaller square cake tin, then just frost the top. Add some flaked coconut and goji berries for some extra colour
- Add 1-2 eggs to the cake ingredients to make the cake fluffier, bake in a square cake time, then cut into lamington squares. Then frost and coat in coconut.
The Back Story To This Recipe
I am no whizz in the kitchen and have my fair share of what my kids call epic fails. But I hate wasting food so I’ve become good at improvising when a recipe doesn’t work out the way it was intended. This Chocolate Lovers Lamington recipe is a result of an epic fail at making a refined sugar free, gluten free, egg free Chocolate Banana Cake. When I took the cake out of the oven, it was kind of flat for a cake. The cake tasted good but it was just too flat.
Hmm, what to do with it. I thought if I cut it in half and stacked it on top of each other, it would be a normal cake height. That led me to the question of how will I stick it together. Another Hmmm, a vanilla butter cream would do the job. Then when I made that it still didn’t look appetising.
How could this ‘cake’ look more appetising? Smother it with a frosting/icing of course. Then all of a sudden bite sized lamingtons popped into my head. So here you have it, my Chocolate Lovers Lamington Recipe.
Why am I sharing this? Because I think it’s important to share that things go flop in the kitchen, but also how you can also turn these flops into something else with a bit of creativity. And best of all, your family and friends would never guess it was a flop in the first place.