May 2015 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Lamingtons

I'd just like to start out this blog post with an apology to all Australians everywhere ... of all time. When I set forth on this baking challenge, I promise that it was not my goal to completely destroy what is a fan favorite for you Down Under. It was just one of those days... :)

This month, we were challenged to make Lamingtons, which are basically single-servings of sponge cake that are dipped in chocolate and then rolled in dried coconut. One problem... I don't like dried coconut. To me, eating it provides the same experience as chewing on styrofoam offers. It just give me a bad chill down my spine. Fortunately, the challenge's host said we could be creative and weren't required to use the traditional coconut. Woo hoo!!

Without any issues, I whipped up my beautiful sponge batter. It was airy. It was frothy. It was the perfect color. I carefully poured it into my prepared baking pan and ushered it into the hot oven. So far, so good!

The recipe said to immediately invert the cake (once completely baked, of course) onto a wire rack, remove the pan, and then re-invert the cake so it is right-side-up on a cooling rack. "NO PROBLEM," said I. "HAHAHA! That's what YOU think," said the baking gods. As I inverted the cake (using pot holders because the pan just came out of a 350 degree oven), all hell broke lose. Actually, hell didn't break lose, but the pan sure did. The entire thing went flying out of my hand and landed on the stove ... the cast iron pan ... and the Dutch oven. Lovely. Ruined. I risked my fingers and plunged in to upright the cake and find out how much damage had been done. How much? This much:

Knowing the cake was going to be cut into bite-size pieces, I decided to carry on and make the best of a less-than-ideal situation. After the cake cooled, I whipped up the chocolate dipping sauce (yum) and then opted to roll my ugly cake pieces in brightly colored sprinkles for two reasons: (1) they aren't coconut and (2) the bright colors will (hopefully) keep people from noticing the fact that the cake went on a bit of a joy ride and got mangled in the process.

All in all, it could have been worse, but could have been MUCH better. Fortunately, the cake's taste wasn't impacted by its flight and is quite yummy!


For the May challenge Marcellina from Marcellina in Cucina dared us to make Lamingtons. An Australian delicacy that is as tasty as it is elegant