This week, New Zealand celeb chef Sue Fleischl shocked Aussies all over by stating on the television show The Great Kiwi Bake Off that the lamington, a famous Aussie treat, is actually from New Zealand.
We obviously love lamingtons, so we decided to investigate where this Australian delicacy came from. Could she be right?
The lamington is Australian, right?
It’s long been thought that the lamington was named after Lord Lamington, who served as the governor of Queensland between 1896 and 1902, and that the first known reference to a lamington was made in 1900, when a recipe for the chocolate and coconut cake was published in Queensland’s Country Life.
The treat quickly became a national favourite for Australians and was decreed a national cake, published in many more recipe books and magazines since.
But… could the lamington actually be Kiwi?
Research completed by the University of Auckland in 2014 suggests that the famous lammo might actually be from New Zealand after all… and called a “wellington”.
An analysis of a collection of watercolours by New Zealand artist JR Smythe and found that a “lamington cake” is pictured in one portrait from 1888 called “Summer Pantry”.
Further to that, apparently our Lord Lamington visited Wellington in 1895 – and researchers undercovered a newspaper article from the year, stating that he was very taken “with the local sweets provided to him by local bakers A.R. Levin.” Among those desserts? A wellington: a double-sponge dessert dressed in coconut “to imitate the snow-capped mountains of New Zealand.”
So… it’s a contentious issue. But Aussie or not, we love the lammo.
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