No, it’s not quite as exciting as last year’s “Macingtons” but this year, my Australia Day lamingtons are a nod to the food culture of North America and the love of pumpkin.
I originally made and posted these for Project Food Blog (the entry that got me eliminated – boo) and a lot of people asked for the recipe. Whilst pumpkin and I still are not really on speaking terms, this was a successful lamington and use of pumpkin so I am happy to post this as my entry to Delicious, Delicious, Delicious’s “Reinvent the Lamington 2011”.
Adapted from The Joy of Cooking
Ingredients:
1 stick (113g) unsalted butter at room temperature
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup pumpkin purée (you can use canned, pure, or fresh)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 1/2 cups cake and pastry (self-raising) flour, sifted
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350°F (180 C). Grease and flour a 9×5 inch (8 cup) loaf pan.
Beat butter and sugars until creamy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add pumpkin and combine well. Stir in the zests.
Add the flour in three parts to the pumpkin mixture and mix well.
Pour into greased loaf pan and bake for about an hour or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. I usually start checking around the 45 minute mark. Let cake cool in pan for about 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen. Invert the cake then let cool completely, right side up before storing.
To make the lamingtons:
Use the pound cake 2-3 days after you have baked it; it will be much easier to cut up and handle. Cut cubes of the cake and sandwich with some cream cheese frosting and cranberry sauce.
Use the chocolate glaze and follow the dipping method from my lamington tutorial (adding about 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spices – or nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice to taste – to the glaze). Roll in unsweetened coconut and leave to set in a cool place.
I actually remember really liking the texture of this cake – more like a quick bread – think banana bread – than a pound cake but this works for lamingtons, especially if it is a couple of days old. If you’ve ever tried to make lamingtons with fresh pound cake, you’ll know what I mean – a sturdier cake is what you need.
Happy Australia Day and don’t forget to enter my RestaurantWare.com giveaway (you’re eligible wherever you live and you definitely will love these products!). Click here to read the post and enter!
(update: The contest is now closed – thanks for entering and congrats to Winnie from Healthy Green Kitchen!)
Lamingtons look scrumptious. They remind me of my Granny’s snowballs in Scotland. This is far more Ozzie! Wonderful.
Oh I have never heard of Granny’s snowballs – off to google them!
looks delicious and sumptuous!
I’ve never had a Lamington, I seem to have been missing something. Thank you for the introduction!
Lael, you do need to try these!
Beautiful pumpkin gems…love the combo of coconut and pumpkin…yum!
Love them! I have been waiting for somebody to do pumpkin ones. Brilliant Mardi. Well done!
I have been a very slow convert to shredded coconut, the texture has always been a bit weird for me but I’m definitely intrigued by this. I have a pumpkin that has just been ruthless in taunting me with it’s presence. I should bake it to make it quiet.
The texture works well in this case!
Happy Australia Day!!!!!!!! These are lovely…would love to have some!
I’d never heard of these, but I love pumpkin and they’re beautiful! What a fun recipe. Happy Australia Day!
They are a pretty colour aren’t they?
We both had lamingtons for the first time last year at the Beverly Hills’ Taste of Australia event. We’d never had one (or heard of them) before! It’s nice to see a little twist on the cakes here. Happy Australia Day!
Oh how cool that you got to taste a lamington!
I’ve never had lamington before but i’ve heard of it. Pumpkin would be delicious in it, I’m sure. 🙂 I have a can of pumpkin leftover from the holidays, maybe it’s time for me to make some!
It works well with both canned and fresh pumpkin. You should try it.
What a great way to celebrate Australia Day! Love the pumpkin in it!
I have been wanting to make something pumpkin-y for the past few day, and now I think I found what to make! These look so yummy!! I love all the coconut!
This looks wonderful. I love lamingtons.
Nice lamingtons! They are one of my favorite cakes.
That looks absolutely delectable ! I love pumpkins and I love lamingtons too! Wonder if I can successfully make them GF. Thanks for sharing!
I should imagine any good GF pound cake recipe would work too.
I remember that post….I’m glad you went back baking something with pumpkins 🙂 I still think this twist to lamingtons is a great one!
Well I didn’t go back – I just posted the recipe! It does work very well actually!
Happy Australia Day!!!
I am really enjoying reading posts that feature Australian food (my grandparents were born and raised in Australia!). These look delicious and manage to cover all the bases – pumpkin with cranberries AND pumpkin with chocolate!
Yes I think it works well – it’s a nice flavour combination!
I’ve also never had a lamington, but I think this is a fabulous and different way of using pumpkin – great job!
You need to try a lamington at some point in your life!
These look fantastic! I love pumpkin (and most other squash) done as a sweet dish! The coconut is a nice touch!
Oh my goodness that is a party waiting to happen. Love Pumpkin!
Yes they are fairly jolly, aren’t they?
Happy Aussie Day! Love this pumpkin version 🙂
Best of both worlds, huh?
Mardi, another beautiful post! You’re such an inspiration that I had to send you a Stylish Blogger Award via my blog. Congrats and thanks for the inspiration.
Thanks Steph 🙂
Looks delicious and beautiful at the same time!
Yes they are rather pretty, if I do say so myself!
Interesting take on the lamington. I like it.
I did not eat breakfast yet, and i wish i had this . It look moist and YUMMY!
Yes the pumpkin makes a nice texture.
You had me at “pumpkin”. Something that bite-size would get me in trouble though. I’d probably down 20 of them, thinking, “Just one more won’t hurt.” Thanks for sharing!
Well they are not exactly bite sized but they are *fairly* small…
Yum ! I’m a Canadian living in Sydney and had no idea what lamingtons were until I moved down under. They’re delicious but using pumpkins makes them sound even better. I also use pumpkins in all kinds of desserts – thanks!
Yes I am slowly warming to the idea of pumpkin in desserts…
I never thought I’d see you using pumpkin again! But Australia Day is a good exception;)
Well to be fair, I didn’t make it again – I just posted the recipe 😉 Not quite there yet!
have not had lamingtons for so long! I am holidaying in Oz now and was here for Australia day…should have had one then!
Oh you should definitely have one whilst you are in Oz!
this looks delish! congrats on top 9 🙂
Congrats on Top 9!! Those cakes sure brought back memories of when I quit my job 10 years ago and spent a month in OZ!! And I have to say, the pumpkin sounds ahhmazing. Kudos to YOU!!
Yes it’ definitely not your usual lamington but they are pretty tasty!
Yum! I love all things pumpkin… These look great.
Yes I bet you would love these Jen!
Darn……..knew we forgot something to go with the prawns, crab and beer!! Oh well, my excuse is, we only arrived back from five weeks in NZ the day before…..and I’m sticking to it.
Totally excused Tami. Plus, you get to have them all the time!
Hooray, glad at least one of us did the lamington reinvention this year! I was too busy living it up at the tennis, la di da 😉
Delicious, Mardi! And Happy Straya Day to you!
Even though they are from the dreaded pumpkin post, right?
these look lovely – found them via your nutella lamingtons but much prefer pumpkin version – though I must protest that in my Australian childhood I ate pumpkin almost every day and still eat it regularly so it is not just Americans who love their pumpkin
Well you must be much much younger than me because in the 70s, the only pumpkin was butternut squash 😉
So i’m confused. I really want to try these but I have a question. In the ingredient list; 1 1/2 c cake and pastry flour sifted. So is it 1 1/2 c of cake flour and 1 1/2 c pastry flour to make 3 total cups or a total of 1 1/2 flour?
Thanks
Cake and pastry flour – what I used:
http://www.robinhood.ca/product.details.asp?pid=191&prodcid=44
In Australia, where I grew up, I would use self-raising flour in this recipe.
Hope that helps!
Wonderful! it looks nice and easy,thank you!