This Lamington packs a serious chocolate punch. How could I enter the Lamington contest over at Delicious Delicious Delicious and not submit the quintessential Australasian flavour combo. Jaffa. Which is Chocolate and Orange if you are not familiar with Kiwi/Aussie speak.

No frou frou and fluff on this Lamington, it’s a serious cake eaters task to get through one of these. It’s not a beauty contest winner - but if there was a tasty contest this would be giving those other Lamingtons a run for their money.

These are Jaffas. Little solid balls of chocolate surrounded by an intense orange candy shell.

They were the inspiration for this Lamington.

Double Chocolate Jaffa Lamingtons

The Orange Cake

I made up my favourite citrus and coconut cake, the recipe is over here on this page with some small modifications for the Lamington base.

• Use two Oranges - not Tangelos
• Bake in a 32 cm x 21 cm (13 inch X 9 inch) rectangular pan.
• Omit the syrup steps entirely.

It will not take as long to cook in this pan, so keep an eye on it.

Leave to cool completely before you attempt to make Lamingtons with it.

Orange chocolate Ganache

While your cake is cooking make your chocolate ganache. This is a soft ganache, it will not set firmly.

• 250 grams dark chocolate broken into squares
• 200 mls of cream
• 1 Tblspn Grand Marnier (optional- if using, reduce the amount of cream slightly)

Place your cream and chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Stir continuously.

Once your chocolate starts to melt remove from the heat, stir until all your chocolate has melted and the chocolate and cream have amalgamated.

Add in your Grand Marnier if you are using it at this point.

Set aside roughly 1/2 a cup of the ganache and place in the fridge to cool and thicken. Leave the remainder at room temperature - you may need to reheat this slightly before you use it to dip your Lamingtons.

Coating your Lamingtons

• 6 Cadbury Flake chocolate bars - If you cannot get these coarsely grated chocolate is a fine substitution

Cut your orange cake into squares roughly 2 inches/4 cm square. Take some of your cooled ganache from the fridge and spread on the top of one square. Sandwich another on the top.

Gently reheat the ganache that was not in the fridge till it is a runny consistency.

Using two forks dip your sandwiched cake squares into the bowl of slightly warm ganache to coat. I used a small measuring cup and poured over the top of the squares to minimise the cake crumbs in the ganache. You can place them in the fridge for a few minutes at this point to solidify the ganache a little if you wish.

Roll into the crumbled chocolate flakes and pat more on gently where there are gaps. Place carefully on a plate.

Store in the fridge in a covered container for up to 3 days.

You’d like to see the inside?

I have to warn you, these are impossible to eat in a tidy manner, but then again, half the fun is licking copious amounts of chocolate off your fingers.

After roughly 10 minutes - this was all that was left of a batch of these.

It was hard to get a photo and my photography skills are pretty shaky at the best of times - seriously, they went so fast.

There was also another slight variation on the one you see above with Almond Gianduja as a filling.

I love these home-made Lamingtons. New Zealand and Australian Bakeries - please stop selling the stale and crusty versions! To those Bakeries that sell lovely moist Lamingtons - keep up the good work!

The Lamington War is on, well at least according to Ms Humble of the wonderful Not so Humble Pie. I love this blog, she gives a wonderful story about Lord Lammington - or Chuck as she refers to him. Isaac started making a Lamington yesterday before we noticed the competition over on Delicious delicious delicious for a Lamington inspired concoction. Isaac had said he wanted to make blue Lamingtons - of course five year old boys like electric blue food. The competition is open to everyone, so why not?

Four days of rain and he was starting to bounce off the walls so something a little more time consuming like a Lamington was fine. He did need a little help with certain parts of this. But the bulk of it he did all by his little five year old self. Watch out Ms Humble - you have a five year old challenger on your hands!

Blueberry Lamingtons - Chef Isaac

The Genoise (or cake bread as Isaac refers to it)

• 4 eggs
• 125 grams caster sugar/superfine
• 125 grams plain flour
• 15 grams butter - melted

Mums and Dads you will need to start this bit off for your kids since there is hot water involved.

Whisk the sugar and eggs in a bowl over simmering warm water until thick pale and warm. About 5 minutes.

Isaac took over at this point. Remove from the heat and beat for about 10 minutes with a hand mixer until tripled in volume and thick and pale.

Sift your flour over in three lots, adding the melted butter just before the last lot of flour. Fold in with a metal spoon - very carefully.

Pour into a well greased and floured 8 inch/20 cm square cake pan and bake for roughly 15 minutes at 180/350F or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Apparently spreading flour around the cake pan and kitchen is fun! Isaac was dancing all over the kitchen with the pan.

Leave the cake in the pan for 10 minutes  after it’s done and while you’re waiting, draw an awesome picture of a man, then turn the cake on to a cake rack to cool completely.

Isaac and I did this bit yesterday and then left the cake in a sealed container. He was keen to get back to it today.

Make up one bowl of blueberry Jelly/Jello. Leave it to almost set in the fridge

While your Jelly is cooling down - make the blueberry cream cheese filling

Blueberry Cream Cheese

• 1/2 cup of cream cheese softened
• 1 large Tblspn of Blueberry conserve/Jam

Taste the cream cheese while you think Mummy is not watching

Add in some blueberry jam

Mix till it’s smooth

Taste.

Cut your genoise into squares. Fill a dish with coconut to roll them in.

Sandwhich your genoise together with blueberry cream cheese. Brush them with jelly and roll in coconut to coat.

OR Isaac’s alternative method.

Dunk your squares of genoise into the jelly, swirl it around, squeeze the jelly through your fingers, put your genoise on the bench and lick your hands. Then get another handful of jelly and eat it. Wipe your hands on your T shirt…..

Roll filled squares of genoise in coconut and squeeze together - hard.

If you actually want to be able to eat your blueberry Lamington, I don’t suggest Isaac’s method.

The result?

Actually, amazing! They were moist and delicious the blueberry cream cheese was great and after sitting for a while the jelly made the coconut moist.

What Isaac Learned making this.

• Eggs get really puffy when you beat them with sugar
• It’s fun to shake flour all over the kitchen and dance with a cake pan
• Blue jelly is squidgy and you can actually pick it up in your hands if you try
• Coconut is like bits of string but nice to eat
• How to measure weights on the scale and that the lines mean numbers.
• It’s hard to cut straight lines on cake
• If you squeeze cake it gets flatter
• Making Lamingtons takes a long time and it’s messy
• Mummy will finish what you started but got tired of.

It was a long activity for Isaac, but he did enjoy it. It would be more suitable for a slightly older child - so that you get more than four Lamingtons made before your little chef starts looking for their slinky.