Lamingtons are a popular Australian dessert/snack. Traditional lamingtons do not have a filling, and are usually just cubes of cake, glazed with chocolate, and rolled in coconut. In my case, I wanted to combine them with another favorite dessert of mine, being the Boston cream pie. Boston cream pie features a vanilla cake, a custard filling, and chocolate glaze on top. There are a lot of overlapping elements between these two desserts, both of which feature a vanilla cake and a chocolate ganache glaze. Lamingtons are coated in coconut flakes, while Boston cream pie has a custard filling. So why not combine the two? In this case, these lamingtons are going to be layered with a bavarian cream custard to emulate that Boston cream pie filling. I wanted to make my lamingtons with that additional bavarian cream filling, because I had this idea to layer up the cake with some fillings, freeze them, and then glaze and roll them, just so that there is a little more textural contrast and a beautiful cross section. I used these cube molds to form my little lamingtons, resulting in some really perfect looking cubes! Overall, these lamingtons do check off my cravings for both a lamington and a Boston cream pie, so I would count it as a win in that regard. Are these traditional Australian lamingtons? Definitely not, since these have a filling, instead of just being solid cubes of spongecake. But are they delicious, relatively quick to make, light as air, and not too sweet? Heck yeah, they are.

For the components, we have a vanilla chiffon cake sponge, a bavarian cream filling, a chocolate ganache glaze, and toasted desiccated coconut. Chiffon cake is a challenging batter to make, if you do not own an electronic mixer, since it requires you to whip a lot of egg whites to stiff peaks. The filling is a bit technical as well, being a bavarian cream. This is made by first making a pastry cream, which is a sweet egg yolk-based custard thickened with cornstarch, or in this case, gelatin, then folding into that whipped heavy cream to form a mousse-like consistency. I love using bavarian cream inside of mousse cakes or mirror glaze cakes all the time, and it works well as a doughnut filling as well, but in this case, it will be the filling for our Boston cream pie lamingtons. Since eggs and whipped cream are involved, you run the risk of scrambling the eggs or splitting the whipping cream, and temperature plays a key role here too, since if you mix the cream into the egg custard while the custard is too warm, then your bavarian cream will come out dense and pudding-like instead of light and mousse-like. My recommendations here is watch your egg mixture when it is over the stove on an open flame like a hawk, and with the whipped cream, the moment your start to see it pressing up against the sides of the mixing bowl as you whip it, it’s pretty much ready. The glazing is a lot of fun, so long as you make sure that the layered up chiffon cake with bavarian cream is frozen solid. This is a must, or else the assembly will become a giant mess. I would still give this recipe a 6/10 in terms of difficulty, since there aren’t a ton of components going into it, but the components that are there do require some level of technical precision. But don’t be intimidated by that! Because if done right(and even in some cases of it not being done right), these lamingtons are delicious and worth the trial and error to get there!

Makes 8 individual servings:
For the chiffon cake:
4 egg whites
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
2oz canola oil
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
2/3 cups all-purpose flour

In a bowl, whip the egg whites with sugar to stiff peaks. In another bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, canola oil, salt, and vanilla paste. Sift into the egg yolk bowl the flour, and then fold that all together with the whipped egg whites to form your batter. Spread the batter onto a lined quarter sheet tray and bake at 350 degrees F for 18 minutes. Allow the cake to fully cool before you cut out 1-inch by 1-inch squares.

For the bavarian cream:
1/2 cup whole milk
1 tsp gelatin powder
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
3oz heavy cream, whipped to stiff peaks

In a pot, melt the bloomed gelatin into milk. Whisk half of the warm milk into the egg yolks, sugar, and salt. Pour the egg mixture back into the milk and whisk on medium heat for 2 minutes. Pour through a sieve and cool down to room temperature. Mix into that the vanilla first, then fold in the heavy cream.

For initial assembly:
Start by placing down 1 square of the cake into each mold. Add about 2oz of the bavarian cream into each mold, and then place down another square of the cake. Freeze these solid, at least 3 hours in the freezer, before attempting to unmold. Keep the cakes frozen solid for optimal assembly.

For the chocolate ganache glaze:
8oz dark chocolate
2oz heavy cream
2oz whole milk
1oz unsalted butter
a pinch of salt

In a pot, heat up everything on low heat until everything is melted together into a smooth mixture. Allow the ganache to cool down to just above room temperature before attempting to use.

For garnish:
2 cups lightly toasted desiccated coconut

While the cakes are still frozen solid, dip the cakes into the ganache glaze, and then roll in the coconut flakes to finish.