These little cakes are a favourite in New Zealand and Australia. Like the Pavlova, there is always healthy debate over who created lamingtons first. They are just perfect for taking out on picnics or for a special treat.
Place the butter and caster sugar into a medium sized bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Add the lemon zest.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. If the mix looks like it may be starting to curdle, add 1 tbsp of the flour to the mix and keep beating.
Fold in the remaining flour and then the lemon juice until you have a smooth mix.
Spoon this into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and cool in the tin.
While the cake is cooling you can prepare the raspberry syrup to turn the lemon cake into lamingtons.
Place the raspberries into a saucepan with the water and caster sugar.
Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 5 minutes.
Remove from the heat and blend with a stick blender until smooth. Press the puree through a sieve to remove the seeds. Beat in the icing sugar. The raspberry ‘icing’ needs to be quite runny.
Once the cake is cool, remove from the tin and peel off the parchment.
Trim the edges off the cake and cut into cubes. For small lamingtons, cut into inch and a half cubes or any size above that for larger ones.
Put the coconut into a bowl.
Dip each cube of cake into the raspberry syrup, gently shake to remove excess then toss through the coconut until the lamingtons are covered.
Repeat this process until all of the lemon cake has been transformed into lamingtons.
Place into a storage container, lined with baking parchment and refrigerate until required, or enjoy straight away.