Australia Day BBQ + Lemon Slice & Lamington Cupcakes
On Australia Day we went to my parent's friend's place again (as we did on New Year's Eve) for a bbq and to enjoy the live jazz music down on the foreshore. Unfortunately, it poured from about 4pm and then most of the rest of the day, but fortunately we had our shelter to go back to and we could hear the music from the balcony.
We made some things to take along... (recipes at the link below)
I made Lemon Coconut Slice
My sister's Lamington Cupcakes
Our lunch, including tasty homemade
prawn cutlets, crispy chicken wings and my mum's coleslaw
The dreary day ... But Aussies persist!
Preparing the prawns
Awesome wings
The skin was perfectly crispy
Ahhhhhh...crunch!
And the recipes...
For my sister's Lamington Cupcakes, here's a recipe similar to the one she used.
There are a few recipes around the web but I used this one for the Lemon Coconut Slice and messed around with it a bit. The coconut biscuit base turned out quite dense and very moist, and the icing soft, sweet 'n' tart lemon. Delicious combo.
No-bake Lemon Coconut Slice
~ Makes about 40 pieces (each about 5cm by 6cm)
~ You will need two lemons and maybe a third in case the icing goes a touch dry
~ In warmer weather, the slice must be refrigerated before serving as the icing goes melty fast
Ingredients
180g butter (you may need a little more if mixture is a bit dry)
395g can sweetened condensed milk
Two 250g packets of Digestive biscuits*
2 cups desiccated coconut
2 tbps fresh lemon juice
Finely grated rind from one lemon
Lemon Icing
2 3/4 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
To Decorate
Finely grated rind from one lemon
2 1/3 tablespoons desiccated coconut
Method
1. Grease a 23cm x 34cm slice pan and line with baking paper**
2. Place butter and condensed milk in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir occasionally for about 5 minutes or until butter has melted and mixture is smooth.
3. Process biscuits until finely crumbed and combine well with coconut and lemon rind in a large bowl.
4. Stir lemon juice into condensed milk mixture. Add to dry ingredients and stir until well combined.
5. Press mixture into prepared pan, smoothing over with a large spoon. Refrigerate while preparing icing.
6. Spread lemon icing over slice and sprinkle with extra coconut.
7. Refrigerate slice until cold and firm then remove from the pan and cut into pieces.
8. Store slice in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer.
Icing
Combine icing sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan over low heat.
Stir until mixture is warm to the touch and completely smooth.
Remove from heat and use immediately.
*For the one I made in these pics, I used one pack of Nice biscuits as per the recipe in the link, but didn't have two packets for the larger serving I made, so used Digestives on the other half of the pan. The Digestive side was a little more dense and richer in flavour.
**A reminder on lining a slab pan I found here when I was looking
for other recipes: Lightly grease the base and sides of a slab pan, paying particular attention to the two short ends. Cut out a sheet of baking paper, allowing a 2cm overhang at each long side. Use the overhang to lift slice from pan in one piece.
This above recipe also had an alternative method for the icing which uses butter instead of water. I might try it next time..
Lemon icing
2 cups icing sugar mixture
40g butter, softened
1 lemon, juiced
Method
Place icing sugar mixture, butter and 2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice in a bowl. Beat with a wooden spoon until smooth. Spread icing over slice. Refrigerate for a further 30 minutes or until icing has set.
One mix with Nice biscuits, the second with Digestives
Again, Nice on the left, Digestives on the right
