Successful sponge!

It's my birthday on Monday, and as such I'll be expected to bring along a morning tea shout. One of the items I've chosen to make is lamingtons, which are always popular, but can be fiddly to make. I'm planning to try out a tip of Mum's to make coating the sponge a little easier: do it with a partially frozen sponge.


Of course, freezing the sponge has other benefits too. It means I can make it in advance, allowing time for a do-over or complete change of plan if I have another sponge disaster.


With this happy thought in mind, I turned to the recipe for sponge cake (p68) and made a start. Unlike the lemon sponge I made earlier in the week, this one doesn't start with creaming butter and sugar. Instead, you beat eggs with salt, then add sugar and beat until thick. After this, you sift in the dry ingredients, and fold in some melted butter. That's it.

The tin specified in the recipe was a 20cm round tin. Well, a round sponge is not much use for lamingtons, is it? Instead I used an 18cm square. I poured the sponge mixture into the greased and lined tin, then put it in the oven for about 25 minutes. Since my oven seems to be a bit hot, I set it lower than indicated, baking at 180 instead of 190.

The sponge looked pretty good when it came out of the oven. I gingerly pressed in the centre, and it bounced back ok, but I was still afraid of having another soggy-centred sponge. However, it didn't collapse like the lemon sponge did, so I'm confident that it's baked through.

The sponge isn't really very high: these are going to be some fairly squat lamingtons. Maybe I'll keep them in proportion and make miniature ones. Other than that, it seems to be a success. Yay - a passable sponge!

I've wrapped the sponge in baking paper and plastic, and bunged it in the freezer for now. I'll drag it out again on Sunday, and we'll see what kind of lamingtons it makes!