Last Second Entry—S’More Lamingtons

Mr. P extended the deadline to enter the Re-Inventing the Lamginton Contest, so I thought I'd give it one more shot. Of course, I've left it to the last minute to post the recipe and only have a few minutes left, so this will be a brief post. And, please pardon any grammatical or spelling errors.

For my first two entries, I did Argentine and Austrian inspired Lamingtons. I thought I'd do another international version. However, I couldn't come up with any good ideas. Actually, I came up with some pretty horrid ideas. How does a Japanese Lamginton with seaweed and little dried fish sound? See what I mean? Not so great.

After much contemplation, I decided to make a totally American Lamington. But, what's totally American? It seems like all of our cuisine has been borrowed from somewhere. After looking through some vacation pictures of the family in Carpinteria at our favorite beach, I knew what I had to make—Lamingtons based on that famous campfire dessert, S'Mores.

I made the Lamgintons out of graham cracker pound cake filled with marshmallow cream. I then covered them in chocolate and sprinkled each with graham cracker crumbs. They were somewhat messy, but that just added to the authenticity.

My family has certainly enjoyed my Lamington experimentations, and they certainly loved these s'more versions. My son even said, "Dad, You're the best Lamington maker in the world." I'm not sure about that, but that's compliment enough to know these are pretty darn good and that you should give them a try.

The picture's not the best, but that's what you get when you're in a hurry.

If it's too cold for camping or you want something a little more gourmet, these will do the trick.

Graham Cracker Pound Cake

Ingredients:

• 12 Tbsps. Unsalted butter, softened
  
• ½ cup sugar
  
• ¼ cup brown sugar
  
• 1 ½ cups cake flour
  
• ½ cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs
  
• ¼ tsp. salt
  
• 3 Tbsps. milk
  
• 2 Tbsps. heavy cream
  
• 3 large eggs
  
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
  

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 325°. Grease an 8-by-4-inch glass loaf pan, line bottom with parchment paper, and grease again.

In a large bowl, cream the butter with the sugar and brown sugar. In a medium bowl, whisk the cake flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together the whole milk, cream, eggs and vanilla. Beating at medium speed, add the dry and liquid ingredients to the butter mixture in 3 alternating batches.

Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake in the lower third of the oven for about 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn the pound cake out onto a rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Glaze

Ingredients:

• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  
• 2 Tbsps. Shortening
  

Preparation:

Melt together in a pan over a low heat.

S'More Lamington Assembly:

• 1 loaf graham cracker pound cake
  
• Marshmallow cream
  
• Chocolate glaze
  
• Graham cracker crumbs
  

It works best if you freeze the cake. After the cake is frozen, cut into 1" squares that are a ½" thick. Sandwich two pieces of cake with the marshmallow cream. Dip and cover with chocolate glaze. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs on sides and top.