In keeping with our office’s Melbourne Cup tradition, we all brought in a plate of something sweet to celebrate the big race.

I decided to go with pink lamingtons, which seemed suitably festive given the theme.

I adapted a recipe I found on Taste and the lamingtons turned out really well. The key to a good lamington lies in its fluffy sponge centre. This means that you have to try to get as much air in the cake as possible, achieved by beating the cake on high speed, but not overdoing it so it loses volume. The batter should look light and voluminous, almost like foam out of a siphon canister.

Pink lamingtons

Ingredients

Sponge cake:
1/3 cup cornflour
1/3 cup plain flour
1/3 cup self-raising flour
4 eggs at room temperature
2/3 cup caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Pink icing:
3 cups icing sugar mixture
1/2 cup hot water
2 drops red liquid food colouring
4 drops of strawberry essence
2 cups desiccated coconut

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius and line a rectangular slice tin with baking paper. Sift flours and salt together three times to aerate.

2. Using an electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar in a large bowl on medium-high speed for 6 minutes, or until mixture is pale and tripled in volume.

3. Gradually sift flour mixture over egg mixture while simultaneously folding in with a large metal spoon (not a wooden spoon because it’s heavy) until just combined. Pour and level mixture into tin and bake for 20-25 minutes. The cake just needs to be cooked, not necessarily golden or brown in colour.

4. Turn out on to baking paper-lined wire racks. Carefully peel away baking paper, then leave to cool. Cut cake into neat squares once cool.

5. Sift icing sugar into a mixing bowl. Add in food colouring, strawberry essence and hot water. Stir until combined. The mixture should be runny and easy to coat.

6. Using your fingers, dip the cake squares into the icing mixture and coat with coconut.

7. Transfer to a clean plate and leave to set (around 30 minutes). Serve and enjoy!