This Friday, January 26th, is Australia Day. To get into the spirit of our national day, I invited Immy to help me bake a child-friendly twist on an Australian classic – the lamington. For those who don’t know, a lamington is an Australian dessert consisting of a square of sponge cake dipped into melted chocolate and then into grated coconut. Our mini lamington cupcakes are just as yummy but a little easier for children to help bake and decorate.
We started off baking a batch of mini vanilla cupcakes. This cupcake recipe was passed on to me by a fabulous blogging friend, Cath of SquiggleMum, a number of years ago, and it is great for baking with children as it is so quick and easy.
Vanilla Cupcake Recipe
You will need:
- 125g butter
- 3/4 cup caster sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups self raising flour
- 6 Tablespoons milk
To make:
- Preheat oven to 180ºC.
- Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer and then add vanilla.
- Lightly beat eggs and gradually add to the butter/sugar mix.
- Add milk and sifted flour alternately, one third of the total amount at a time.
- Place cupcake wrappers into a muffin tray (we used a mini muffin tray and wrappers). Spoon mix into wrappers.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes (mini sized), 12-15 minutes for a larger sized cupcake.
Once your cupcakes have fully cooled it is time to add the lamington magic!
Lamington Cupcakes
You will need:
- 1 batch mini vanilla cupcakes
- 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 10g butter or margarine
- 1/3 cup boiling water
- 1 cup desiccated coconut
To make:
- To make the icing, sift together icing sugar and cocoa powder.
- Add butter and boiling water and stir until smooth. The icing should be runny, not thick.
- Place coconut into a separate bowl.
- Holding each cupcake by its base, dip into the icing mixture and hold for a moment to allow the mixture to soak into the cake a little and then dip into the coconut.
That’s it. Easy to make, yummy to eat! Happy Australia Day everyone!
To celebrate Australia Day this Sunday, January 26th, I’ve teamed up with some great Australian bloggers to bring you this fun Australia Day for Kids series. Check out all of the blogs below for some playful, Aussie-themed ideas you can do or make with your kids.
- The Craft Train: Cockatoo Pencil Tins
- Laughing Kids Learn: Aussie Scented Sensory Rice
- Danya Banya: Australian Flag Craft
- My Little Bookcase: Possum Magic Themed Party
- One Perfect Day : Lemon and Eucalyptus Playdough
- Racheous – Lovable Learning: Educational Kids Activities
- Wildlife Fun 4 Kids: Kangaroo & Joey Puppet Play Set
How will you be spending Australia Day?
Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.
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