Lamington Cupcakes - Cupcake Cubes Frosted on All Sides

"Think Lamingtons," said Peter of Delicious Delicious Delicious at the conclusion of an email he sent urging me to enter his blog contest, Re-inventing the Lamington. Before I could re-invent the Lamington, I had to find out just what a Lamington was!

What are Lamingtons?

If you are in Austrialia or New Zealand, you probably find it funny that I need to ask what Lamingtons are. In Australia, there is even a National Lamington Day, which falls on July 21.

Lamingtons are a sponge cake or butter cake cut into cubes, dipped in chocolate, and then dipped in dessicated coconut (read more in the Lamington Wikipedia article). Sounded good to me!

How Did I Re-invent the Lamington?

In Peter's Re-inventing the Lamington contest, he challenged participants to come up with a recipe for Lamingtons with a difference. After reading numerous articles on Lamingtons, I learned that one of the more difficult parts of Lamington making is that cutting the cake into cubes may produce lots of crumbs. The crumbs end up gunking up the frosting.

I decided that instead of baking a cake and cutting it into cubes, I would start with cubes and make Lamington cupcakes! I purchased square silcone cupcake liners from Wilton (if you are in St. Louis, you can pick some up at Kitchen Conservatory). The neat thing about using silicone is that the cupcakes easily come in and out of the liners. I was able to remove the cupcakes, frost on all sides, and then put them back in their liners. As you can see above, when the cupcakes were returned to the liners, no one would ever know that they were frosted on all sides. The tasters found a happy surprise of frosting on each side of the cube!

Another (less exciting) change that I made was to decorate half of the cupcakes with coconut and the other half with white sprinkles. Bride and Groom 3.o don't like coconut, but they do like sprinkles!

How to Make Lamington Cupcakes

I got the recipe for the Lamingtons from allrecipes. I am reprinting it below with changes to make it into cupcakes and changes to the frosting to make it a bit less thick and a bit less sweet.

Note: Bake the Lamington cupcakes a day before you want to serve them. The cake needs to sit out overnight to get a bit stale before it is frosted. Trust me - you'll like the stale cake. Frosting it on all sides moistens it up.

Makes 12 cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

• 1/2 C unsalted butter
• 3/4 C white sugar
• 1 t vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean paste)
• 2 eggs
• 2 C all-purpose flour
• 4 t baking powder
• 1/8 t salt
• 1/2 C milk

1. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition.
4. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well.
5. Set silicone cupcake liners on a baking sheet and fill them 3/4 full.
   
6. Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
7. Leave out uncovered overnight.
   

For the frosting:

• 3 C confectioners' sugar
• 1/3 C unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 T unsalted butter, melted
• 1 C heavy whipping cream
  

1. In a large bowl, combine confectioners' sugar and cocoa.
   
2. In a saucepan, heat heavy whipping cream and butter until the butter is melted.
3. Add the hot mixture to the sugar mixture and mix well to create a fluid, but not too runny, frosting.
   

Putting it together:

• 1 (8 ounce) package flaked coconut or a lot of white sprinkles or anything else fun that you can think of to decorate with (pink sugar hearts for Valentine's day, green shamrocks for St. Patty's day, etc.)

1. Place your topping into a small shallow bowl.
2. Remove cupcakes from liners.
3. Using a fork or a long toothpick or your fingers (if you've cleaned them well, are willing to get messy, and are able to resist the urge to lick them) dip each cube into the icing, then roll it in the topping.
4. Return the cube to its silicone liner. Continue for each piece.