An amalgam of two recipes

Why am  I so obsessed with the number 2 these days?  Is it having two sons?

Anyway July's challenge was baking egg free lamington.  Gayathri chose David Leobovitz's blog, one of my favourite dessert sources, so I did not try any hacking or adaptations of my own;  I simply made my favourite egg free sponge and then made the icing as per David's website.  The results? Awesome!


the delectable lamingtons

the Lamingtons deshabille ;) lovely crumb. poor fotos.




BRU instant for coffee flavour
the only alcohol i can stand. in milk!!!

the chocolate frosting

toasted coconut
  One tiny change which I made and loved is adding a coffee flavour to the icing and the cakes.  Also I baked my cake in a round pan - no square pan at home.

Vanilla Coffee Sponge Adapted from Sharmee's passion
  1. 1 1/2 cups maida
  2. 1 teaspoon baking soda
  3. 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  4. 1 cup homemade curd
  5. 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  6. 1 tablespoon Kahlua (hubby got me 1 bottle last US trip)
  7. 3/4 cup sugar
  8. 1/4 cup butter
  9. 1/4 cup sunflower oil
Preheat oven to 175 deg
 Sift items 1-3 together in 1 bowl
Beat yogurt and sugar until sugar looks dissolved/ not so grainy in another bowl
Add vanilla, kahlua to the yogurt mix
Add butter oil to the yogurt mix and mix well
Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until just incorporated.
Pour into a well greased pan
Bake at 175 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes
 
Icing adapted from David Lebovitz

  1. 175 g dark chocolate, chopped
  2. 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
  3. 3/4 cup  milk
  4. 2 cups  powdered sugar
  5. 2 tablespoons cadbury's cocoa powder, sifted since it is always lumpy
  6. 1 tablespoon  BRU instant coffee powder
  7. 2 tablespoons boiling water
  8. 2 cups  fresh shredded coconut  (I had only 2 cups, unwilling to go out and buy 1, break and shred)

 No major change to David's method except for adding the coffee.
 Toast coconut in oven for 10 - 15 minutes.
Melt butter, chocolate and milk together over a water bath.
Dissolve coffee in above mix
Whisk in the cocoa and  sugar.

Slice cooled cake in two.  Spread a generous amount of icing on one of the cut sides.
Replace the other half and cut into small squares.
Add the boiling water to the icing for easier spreading. (I forgot)

Dip square in icing and roll over toasted coconut - basically let your kids do this and enjoy the mess and the cake :)  (Not as much fun when you are cleaning up the kitchen)

It is awesome fresh.  It tastes DIVINE the next day.  

My infinite pressure points:
  1. Don't let your two year old offer to help when you have eggs and butter on the counter.  Remember the little dragon and Anna?
  2. Don't forget to preheat the oven (and then pretend  to beat longer for a better cake).
  3. If you use alcohol, don't forget to put the measuring spoon in the sink immediately after measuring, otherwise you will run the risk of a Myocardial Infarction when your 2 year old picks the spoon.
  4. If you are too impatient to shred the coconut carefully, run it in a blender or food processor for a few seconds to get fine flakes.  Picking out bigger pieces later is simply a waste of time.
  5. Always put away espresso (or bru instant) after you remove reserved quantity.  Otherwise it will harden to a unyielding mass in Humid weather.
  6. Avoid working with chocolate when your 10 year old is home.  Your recipe will have a lot less than needed otherwise ;)
  7. If the icing for dipping is too thick, just thin it with a tablespoon of hot water, otherwise sponge cake will break.
  8. Or better still, move baking to way before dinner or just after, don't delay icing the cake. Delaying makes it thicker.
  9. You can't toast your coconut and then expect pristine white flakes.  Just not possible.  More flavoursome though.
  10. Is it possible to prevent the chocolate colour from seeping into the coconut?   One vaguely successful idea was chilling after icing, but, before dredging in coconut.


Comments

Nupur said…
Good attempt, wonder why you havent posted any pictures

Am sure you enjoyed baking these :)
Gayathri Kumar said…
Additon of coffee sounds great. A picture might be a great addition to the post...
kpks said…
sorry. I totally forgot! Adding it now.
Archana said…
Wow this is great. love the addition of coffee.
I love the pressure points 6, I think, where you have to not use chocolate around a 10 yr old. In my case it will have to around husband and 18 yr old.

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