Lamingtons

Made these today - Lamington Cake, apparently popular in Australia - didn't know about it, but because I found the recipe off a cake pan (believe it or not) I decided to bake them. It's a public holiday and so, great time to work on something new.

The texture of the cake is soft and the chocolate icing used for bonding the dessicated coconut makes it a different 'cake' experience altogether.

When I first looked at the picture on the baking tin, it looked like a local traditional 'malay' kueh.

The entire coating process was messy and tedious, but it's worth it.

The cake is soft and the dark chocolate icing balances the whole taste.

Perhaps I've always like cooking and baking, which makes it easier for me to lift recipes and get the finished product tasting just right. Some people believe that we should make food from the heart so that it turns out right. I bake and cook, because it de-stresses me, and the love of this distraction makes it work for me. I have experienced atrocious cooking when the cook isn't tuned to the task at hand - in fact, I can attest to this fact simply because I've had a neurotic parent whose cooked product swings like the bipolar scale.

Baking and cooking are in the hands, but more importantly, in the heart and soul and if you don't love what you're doing, the best recipes with the best illustrations will not have an end result that's not just appealing to the eyes, but it probably won't be edible either. I know of someone, my gf, who just wants to cook, but everything just turns out wrong, including a fried egg. She says it's in the hands, but I say, you have to love the task, want to do it and just do it. I wasn't born a cook/baker, just did it out of boredom and necessity.