Like Hawaii threw up on my plum pudding

or the 70's...that's how I'm describing this picture taken on Christmas Day. Well I had to do something to entertain myself and what better than an ugly tablecloth, some punch and umbrellas in my drink. Super stylish I know.

I made that pudding myself as well, but that involved hours of recipe research, extensive fruit soaking, a trip to pick up my pudding calico, soaking said calico, making the pudding, fussing about with how much flour was required to be spread on the cloth for skin forming, constructing a complex hanging method so the pudding is neither completely submerged nor not submerged enough...hours of waiting, a complete failure, a do-over, more hours of waiting...and then a week or so of worry before pudding time...but that is a much longer story!

Happy Lamington Day...

So, as it was our National Day and I decided to make lamingtons. Not eating wheat or sugar for a few weeks and feeling like a sweet carb indulgence of course had no effect on my quest to make these sweet coco-nutty cakes at all you understand.

Much to my surprise Matt Moran provided the inspiration and before I knew it, 3 hours of careful baking later and voila! (well a few minutes of mixing, then sponge cooking, then waiting for it to cool for an hour or so, then about 5 minutes of roll it about in chocolatey niceness and fluff about with coconut).

The interesting part of my adventure was I also had no jam and no icing sugar in the cupboard. So? Well quince paste stepped in nicely for the jam, just a lovely bit of tartness, and in the place of the icing sugar some melted down orchid icing (you know that pre-rolled icing so favoured on iced fruit cakes, that was in cupboard too!), The result...bloody awesome. And can you see my very yellow sponge...how's that for a nice use of organic and biodynamic eggs, Happy Australia Day.

Image: Quince Paste Lamingtons on Wedgwood Jasper Conran 'Chinoiserie' saucer