Grandma's Raspberry Lamingtons

Making something for someone means something. It’s your time, thought and care, wrapped up in something made especially for them.

And there’s something especially lovely about making recipes loved before us. Passed down like heirlooms through generations, scribbled into cookbooks and made again and again, they carry stories, memories and years of love with them.

That’s what Friday Bakes is all about: treasured recipes, made-from-scratch baking, and making food for the people we care about.

And where better to begin than with Grandma’s Raspberry Lamingtons.

A long-loved family recipe made with homemade sponge and real raspberries, just the way Grandma made them. Soft, fluffy, a little bit messy and especially good shared with a cup of tea.

For the Lamingtons

350g fresh raspberries
90g (9 tablespoons) castor sugar
50ml (3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon) water
2 teaspoons powdered gelatine
100g (1 + 1/4 cups) desiccated coconut
250ml (1 cup) cream, whipped to stiff peaks
Sponge Cake

For the Sponge

3 eggs
pinch salt
125g (1 + 1/4 cups) sugar
50g (7 tablespoons) flour, preferably cake flour
25g (3 + 1/2 tablespoons) cornflour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Method

Preheat oven to 190ºC.

To make the sponge, grease with baking spray or melted butter a bun tray (our bun tray measures 32cm x 23cm and is similar to a sponge roll tin). Line base of bun tray with baking paper.

Place eggs and salt in bowl of an electric mixer or mixing bowl, and whisk one
minute. While continuing to whisk slowly pour in sugar and whisk till mixture is thick
and pale yellow.

Sift flour, cornflour and baking powder together, and fold gently into egg mixture.
Pour mixture into prepared bun tray.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or till sponge springs back when lightly touched. Leave in tray for 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.

To make the raspberry jelly, into a food processor fitted with a plastic blade place 250g
raspberries (retain the remainder to garnish the lamingtons) with castor sugar and
process till mushy. A plastic blade will prevent the seeds from splitting and causing
bitterness.

Pour mixture through a sieve and, pressing down on mixture with the back of a soup
ladle, extract juice. Discard seeds. You should end up with 250ml (1 cup) seedless
raspberry puree.

In a small bowl place water and sprinkle gelatine over water. Leave to soak for 5
minutes or till the gelatine absorbs the water. Place bowl over a small pot of
simmering water and stir till gelatine becomes a clear mixture.

Add gelatine to raspberry puree and leave to sit for 5 minutes. (You can make the
jelly a day ahead and when you are ready to use place bowl of jelly in microwave on
medium heat for 1 minute or till jelly is liquid again, then let rest for 10 minutes and
proceed with recipe as follows.)

Using a 6.5cm round straight-edged metal cutter or a cup with equivalent diameter,
cut 9 rounds from Sponge Cake.

Tip coconut onto a large plate. Dip top, bottom and edges of sponge rounds in
raspberry jelly and roll in the coconut to thoroughly coat on all sides. Leave sitting
on a cake rack for at least 1 hour, or till jelly has set.

Cut each lamington horizontally, three-quarters of the way through. Place cream
and raspberries into each lamington and serve on the day they are filled.