Emma and Harpreet make lamingtons and a mess, but mostly a mess

What a lamington is supposed to look like

After all the excitement of moving house in Leeds, I've been back to Nottingham briefly in order to catch up with friends, family and, of course, Robin Hood. Last night, me and Harpreet (one of my oldest friends, who I've known since I was 4) decided to attempt to make lamingtons, a cake generally found in Australia and New Zealand. Being half Australian, I'd made this cake when I was little, so I thought it would work quite well. Unfortunately, we were far too eager to eat the cake as soon as it came out of the oven, so we didn't leave it to cool. This resulted in a big mess. But a tasty mess all the same! Here is the recipe we used...

• Preheat the oven to 190°C/Gas Mark 5.
• Mix together 200g self raising flour, 3 tsp baking powder, 115g sugar, 125ml vegetable oil, 325ml cold water and 2 tsp vanilla essence.
• Add the mixture into greased cake tins and bake for 30 minutes.
• Leave to cool! This one is very important!
• Slice cake in half horizontally and sandwich back together with jam.
• Mix together 30g cocoa and 120g icing sugar with a few drops of water at a time until it reaches a good consistency (you may need to make more icing later).
• Slice the cake into squares and coat in chocolate icing. 
• Roll lamingtons in dessicated coconut.
• Eat after the (veggie?) barbeque on the beach, but beware the surfing kangaroos; they will try to steal your cake.

 Vanilla sponge recipe source: The Vegan Society