Australia Day

[alibubbles]

Do any of you Aussie mums have any really good, simple recipes for something I can make really quickly, with stuff I probably have in the cupboard? I have good quality plain chocolate, flour, butter, eggs, creme fraiche, etc

I have a committee meeting at my house tomorrow evening and one of the girls is Australian, and misses home a lot, even though she has been here for 14 years.

I have a nice Australian Shiraz (Rose) and wanted to make some cake to have as well. I know that lamingtons are supposed to be an Aussie special - any recipes please

Classic Australian cake is call 'Lamington'. It is basically a small square of sponge cake (about 4inches) with a thin coating of chocolate icing and then rolled in dessicated coconut. You would You can probably really easily find the recipe on the net! What a nice friend you are!

alibubbles, in the supermarkets here (Oz) I sometimes see a whole sponge cake done in lamington-style... meaning you could just get a a double sponge cake, sandwich it together with whipped cream (even add a thin layer of jam if you wanted to), and put the chocolate icing and coconut on the outside. The icing would have to be similar to the proper lamington icing though, which could be a problem because lamingtons are usually dipped whole into the chocolate and then left to set.

Anyway here is a receipe for individual lamingtons: (makes 20)

• Slab of plain cake or day-old sponge cake, cut into 20 equal sized pieces (usually cubes of around 7x7 cm)
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• dessicated coconut

Put sugar, water & cocoa into a saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Brush down sides of saucepan with wet pastry brush. Boil for 12 minutes without stirring. Remove from heat, add vanilla & stir for 1 minute, cool slightly.
Dip cakes quickly in chocolate, toss in coconut. Stand on waxed paper to become cold and set.

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Thank you so much, I have made the sponge and I think when I pick the mindie up from nursery he can make Anzac biscuits.

Thanks MN's, I knew you'd have recipes.

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Well, I've coated the lamingtons! I can't believe how much icing sugar, it took forever to sift. Some of them are bit odd shaped sizes as I found my coating was a bit too thick, and they broke in half! So added a little more milk and found it a lot better.

DH has just come in and said that they look really good on the cooling rack. The sponge tastes good, but I don't particularly like coconut, nor do DD and DS - (hate bounty bars) so have a left a few uncoated for them and probably one for me!

I'be printed off some aussie flags and laminated them and made them into little flags and a card.

We'll raise a glass to Australian mumsnetters tonight!

We have two Aussies in the office and so far have have Anzac biscuits and Tim Tams (sp?). The Lamington cake is promised for this afternoon. Never heard of any of these things before, but I'm all for embracing these cultural differences

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It's even worse than that. I've now had my first Tim Tam suck.

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I just had to look up what a Tim Tam was and I found this!
Tim Tam Slam

Once I met a girl, she said her name was Pam
She told me that I ought to try the Tim Tam Slam
She asked me up for coffee, I thought it was a line
But we were there before I got to say "your place or mine"
She sat me down she filled the cups
She made it white with one
But when we got the Tim Tams out I knew we had begun
We were doin' the Tim Tam Slam

She showed me how it's done and you can do it too
Get yourself a hot drink and Tim Tam or two
Then bite both ends off one and use it as a straw
Then quickly gulp the lot before it ends up on the floor
Hot chocolate, tea or coffee
It's a choice you'll have to make
'Cos when it comes to sugar rush, this really takes the cake
We were doing the Tim Tam Slam

The next day when I woke upon the kitchen floor
I felt like I had added on a kilogram or four
My memory was murky, my mouth was much the same
How can such wicked Biscuits go by such a cutesy name
Pam burst in with three bags full
She'd just been at the shop
She grabbed the kettle with a grin and filled it to the top
We were doin' the Tim Tam Slam

That's right y'all, we were doin' it, doin' it

We were doin' it, doin' it, doin' it, doin' it, doin' it, doin' it
We were doin' the Tim Tam Slam
That's right y'all, we were doin' it
In the kitchen we were chewin' it
On the hot plate we were brewin' it
Yeah we were doin' it
We were doin' the Tim Tam Slam, yeah
So whenever you feel this way, don't delay do it today, slam away, it'll be OK
You'll be doin' the Tim Tam Slam

ROFL Today has been such an education!!!

we are having a tim tam slam comp today in our local tesco store and the lovely Harry Kewell from LFC is coming to judge it ,I amm actually lokking forward to going into work today:0

can almost taste the lamingtons!!

Well I joked last week that I would take the day off work as it was my ' cultural right' to do so(being an aussie in the UK)...... I ended up having to take the day off work.... not to do anything more exciting than care for an 18month old with a serious dose of chickenpox and trapped wind - Yippee!!!! After no real sleep for three nights

Next year should be better - will be back in Aus and having a real aussie day at the beach and having a barbie - I know all chilches but wonderful nonetheless!!