“Sorry, did you say lemingtons? Are they like, tropical fruits?”
Not the response I was expecting when I excitedly told my colleagues that M&S Food was about to launch two versions of lamingtons to the UK public. As an Australian living in London, I’m used to navigating minor cultural differences in the workplace. Case in point: Brits eat their sausage rolls cold, with no sauce. And if you ask for sauce, they’d ask: “What kind?” But to learn that they hadn’t heard of lamingtons – the treat I’d scoff at my Grandma’s house, the major player at any cake stall, the bakery stalwart, neighbour to the trusty snot block – felt downright wrong. Like I’d slipped through a wormhole into a tragic parallel universe.
To fix this feeling, I bought both kinds of the British-made lamingtons and arranged a taste test with a group of fellow Australia-born immigrants.
What defines a classic lamington? As the legend goes, the cake was created in Queensland in the 1890s, when Lord Lamington’s chef whipped up a batch for unexpected guests using leftover sponge cake, dipped in chocolate and rolled in coconut. The first known printed recipe for them appeared in the Queensland Country Life newspaper in December 1900.
These days, they vary in complexity, but the key ingredients remain. Radio Lamington, a lamington business by UK-based Australian restaurant group Daisy Green, says: “The classic should be fluffy vanilla sponge, layered with jam and then dipped in a chocolate and coconut dusting”.
For me, the classic lamington is a cushiony wodge on a paper plate at your cousin’s sixth birthday party. It’s the sticky residue of chocolate on your fingers. It’s finding bits of sweet, nutty coconut on your school collar. It’s served in plastic supermarket sleeves, and crinkly bakery bags. Am I too blinded by nostalgia to accurately assess the efforts of the M&S Food bakers? Perhaps. But I’ll give it my best shot, along with four willing taste-testers.
M&S Chocolate & Coconut Lamingtons, £4 for two
M&S Food says: Cubes of buttermilk-enriched chocolate sponge coated in rich chocolate sauce, rolled in coconut flakes and topped with hand-piped buttercream and jam.
Score: 6/10
This lamington is a beautiful thing to behold. Sure, the artfully piped buttercream and jam on top is unconventional, but looks a treat. The familiar smell – borderline-overpowering coconut and subtler chocolate – is just right. But I was genuinely shocked when I sunk my teeth into it. Instead of a light white sponge, it’s a dense chocolate cake!
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I can’t fully convey just how wrong this made us feel; like shucking an oyster to reveal a piece of popcorn instead of a pearl. All the taste testers agreed that this fundamental difference places it firmly into “lamington-inspired” territory, with one rightly saying: “A cubed cake does not a lamington make!”
That said, all reviewers, somewhat guiltily, enjoyed the cake in the end, praising its density and balance of the rich chocolate and coconut with the jam’s tartness. Just don’t call it a lamington.
M&S Caramelised Biscuit Lamingtons, £4 for two
M&S Food says: Cubes of buttermilk-enriched chocolate sponge coated in rich chocolate sauce, rolled in caramelised biscuit crumb and topped with hand-piped buttercream and salted caramel sauce.
Score: 7.5/10
Well, this doesn’t even look like a lamington, does it? This time, our taste testers knew to brace themselves for the secret mud cake within. A classic lamington needs to feel like a soft pillow ensconced in a semi-firm choccy blanket. But this ‘lamington’ has strayed so far from the path of righteousness that it’s hard to tell where the cake ends and the coating begins. Personally, I feel that without the coconut, it’s just an entirely different cake, and an average one at that. But I’m alone in this opinion: the majority of taste-testers preferred this one. One reviewer said: “I wish I could call this an abomination and an insult to Australians everywhere, but this was actually really good – 100% not a lamington in any form really, but just a great little sweet treat.”
I’ll leave the last word to Daisy Green, who began sending lamingtons out to first responders during lockdown in 2020 and still donate to them every Friday: “It’s a nice cake, but not sure Lord Lamington would put his name to it.”