Jammy Lammy log
So Aussie
32, here we go.
What a whirlwind 2 weeks I’ve had, it’s been all go go go. Starting in Melbourne with a bake sale at lovely Florian, a huge success with some delightful customers coming by for all the baked treats. Cherry pie was the first to sell out, so nice to catch the Australian stone fruit season and to add some tropical fruit in with a mango cream dream cake. We got these giant Kensington Pride mangoes that were super tasty and have made up the majority of my meals while I’ve been here.
I was only in Melbourne fleetingly but my lovely pals Glen and Steph took me on a bakery tour which included Iris, Monforte, Urbanstead and Loafer all very tasty. Although my absolute favourite was a Leatherwood honey and sea salt croissant from Monforte. Monforte is a pretty tiny take away space run by the very talented Giorgia, we worked together at Violet many years ago and she taught me a lot as I was a tad useless at the beginning.
Then straight after the bake sale we hotfooted it off to start prepping at No. 7 Healesville in the beautiful Yarra valley. The wonderful team there made us feel very welcome, on the Sunday we served a feast starting with a nibble of tomato and olive tapenade tart made with wholegrain rough puff naturally and all the wonderful baby tomatoes which are currently popping off here. Then on to a salad of green beans, peaches and lardo, gnocchi alla nerano (lots of courgette, basil and cheese.) For mains there was garfish which are very long with pointy chins served with sauce vierge (tomatoes) and agretti.
Georgia is a genius and I’m not sure how she managed to cook all these things at once! On to the puds a palette cleansing poached peach granita served in half a poached peach with cream just what was needed on a sunny Sunday, then a wholegrain choux puff stuffed with roasted apricots and custard I would say rounded it all off pretty nicely. I must say I did enjoy collapsing a little after that and spent the evening mostly with my feet up eating a mango!
But not too much time to chill as Monday we hopped back over to Sydney to start prepping for our dinner at South End, the new hottest double hatted restaurant to eat at in Sydney. Partly owned by my long time pal ex Springer Hussein Sarhan who was one of the reasons I went to Freds in 2019 to work alongside him, Georgia and of course the incredible Danielle Alvarez. It was so nice to be back together cooking again, you know everything’s going to go swimmingly with that bunch in the kitchen.
Tuesday night’s dinner consisted of a cucumber love boat filled with bagna cauda, a salad tumble with cow’s curd, courgette, and pesto. Gnochetti (baby gnocchi) with mussels, tomatoes and pecorino, the main pork neck cooked in fig leaf served with fresh corn polenta and salad. Finished with the jiggliest of peach jellies I was really on the edge of them completely collapsing which is exactly where I like to be and a ricciarelli for them to take home. I was quite jealous not to be sitting down experiencing the whole thing!
Next up was a bake sale at McCarrs up in North Sydney Terrey Hills area, right next to Ku-ring-gai Chase national park. This was a dream experience, the kitchen was so well equipped and the staff wonderfully welcoming. Tom and Claudia have created a fabulous spot for the community, so we were thrilled to be there for a Saturday morning slinging our wares. We went for a mix of Aussie and Italian, Georgia made the most delicious pizza rossa which were perfectly thin and crispy. I did cassata which is always a bit of a showstopper, mango yo yo biscuits but the most popular was the jammy lammy log, this is my take on the classic Lamington so that is the recipe I am sharing with you today.
Our tour came to a perfect end on Sunday afternoon at Paradise bar where Georgia and I were joined by Laura from Towpath Café, London and Trish from Fratellli Paradiso in Sydney. We did a Tavola Calda, a buffet of gorgeous Italian style dishes including little anchovy butter buns, ratatouille, tomato rice, braised chicken leg and olives, finished with brown sugar custard filled bombolone and more cassata because why not. It was pumping from the get go, with wines being poured by lovely Trish from Gazzetta wines. A joyous time even in the sweltering heat.
So on to an absolute Australian classic the lamington, I feel like everyone knows a lamington although we don’t have them much in London they are instantly recognisable from the cube shaped coconut covered appearance. The first time I tackled a lamington was when I did a stage at the Sydney bakery Flour and Stone back in 2018. A lovely bakery run by Nadine Ingram, they have the clever twist of soaking their lammy sponges in panna cotta giving them a soggy in a good way texture, sandwiched with jam and covered in chocolate and a mix of flaked and desiccated coconut, tres delicious.
There are some different theories about how this cake came about in the 1900’s, but it was definitely within Lord Lamington’s household who was the Queensland state governor at the time. He had a French chef, Armand Galland and the story goes that when some unexpected guests arrived he improvised a dessert with leftover sponge covered in chocolate then coated in coconut to avoid messy fingers, it was apparently his Tahitian wife who introduced him to the wonders of coconut. However there is also a theory that it was a maid who accidentally dropped some sponge in chocolate.
However they came about lamingtons have became a beloved Australian bake, often seen at school or charity fundraisers known as Lamington drives or Lammos for short. There is even a Lamington day on 21st July, but they are also often eaten on Australia Day which was on Monday (January 26th.) In 2014 the Guardian, as an April fools claimed the Lamington was from New Zealand and called a Wellington, throwing up doubts as to whether a lamington was truly Aussie! There are all sorts of fancy variations on it nowadays, giant ones, pink ones, different flavour sponges, these posh versions are often referred to as glamingtons!
