Indulgent Gluten Free Lamington Log Recipe

170 g dark additive free chocolate I use Cocolo for cooking as it’s super creamy and dairy free, for my son’s intolerance. Whichever your favourite is however is fine.
60 ml coconut cream / 60 ml coconut water (you could just do 120ml coconut milk but this is what I had in the cupboard) – or regular cream if you can’t do coconut products.

150 ml coconut oil
1/2 cup cocoa or carob powder
40 ml milk of choice (coconut is my first preference here followed by whole milk.)
40 ml rice malt syrup

150 g avocado
120 g coconut cream "top" (meaning, refrigerated coconut cream that you open the can of and just use the top, really solid bit. Use the rest for smoothies, porridge or hot chocolate)
150 g coconut sugar (for a fructose free version you can also use 60g rice syrup but it won’t set quite as well)
100 g raw cacao powder, dutch processed powder or carob powder

1 cup frozen berries of your choice (red works best such as raspberry or strawberry)
1 tsp vanilla bean extract or powder
2 tbsp rice malt, honey or maple syrup, or 3 pinches green stevia powder

Beat the eggs and rice malt syrup until light in colour and then beat further with the softened butter (if using hand held beaters of patissiere machine, all up about 2 minutes)

Then, pop in the vanilla, flours, baking powder and coconut cream. Beat a further 20 seconds or until just combined, as coconut flour continues to soak up liquid over time and we don’t want it too thick.
Then, lay out on a wide tray (mine was 26cm x 22cm) so you get a nice, large and thin sponge.
Bake in oven for 20 minutes, or until skewer is clean and it shows a little bounce to the gentle press of a finger. Fan forced it might be a little under 20, or without fan force it might be a few minutes over 20. Keep an eye.
Take out. Once cool, trim the sides and cut in half long ways so you have 2 nice long rectangles to make your ‘log’.

Blend all until thick and creamy, adding a little extra coconut cream if too thick.

Simply pop your berries, vanilla and syrup into a sauce pan on low and cook out until the liquid nearly evaporates. Allow to cool and thicken while the cake is in the oven and then cooling down.

Once cake is done and nearly room temperature, get started on the ganache icing, raw chocolate icing or liquid set icing, which ever you fancy using.

Now that you have a cool cake and jam and your ganache is made, time to make the lamington log.
Ganache or raw chocolate / raw carbo mix note – pop in the fridge for a bit (literally just 5-10 minutes) to make it easier / thicker to work with.
Spoon your jam over one of the long, cut rectangles of cake.
Set the other piece of cake (get it?) on top. Puntastic!
Now, spoon about half the ganache / liquid chocolate mix over the top of the log, and start working it very gently over the top of the log until evenly covered and smooth, and starting to drip down the sides a little.
Now do the sides. The trick is to hold the spatula against the side of the cake with one side of the paddle touching the bottom of the log and the other side angled away from the cake. Spoon ganache onto spatula and then bring top of spatula up to the top of the log. I will try to pop the video I did in here, to save me (or you!) from going mental trying to explain / understand this step.
Pop in the fridge for 10 minutes once you’ve done this and take out a couple of times and coerce the ganache that may have gathered to the bottom, back up the side of the log with a similar motion.
Now, cover your log with cool toasted coconut. Let it set 30 minutes in the fridge or pop in overnight for impending festivities the next day or night.

Garnish with fresh berries however elaborately you fancy, or just rinsed and straight out of the punnet. I decided to go the whole hog so to speak!
Cut slices of the log, loaf style, and serve with whipped coconut cream, regular cream, custard, coconut ice cream, creme fraiche or vanilla bean ice cream.
A decadent take on a lamington this Australia day: France meets Australia meets alternative diets. Here she is!