Panna Cotta Lamington Cake: a raspberry & almond cake soaked in vanilla panna cotta and coated in dark chocolate ganache, like a grown up lamington crossed with a bread & butter pudding. Jump to recipe.
Hello we’re back for the second recipe of 2021 (see, one a month. It’s going to be a thing. Hold me to it). It’s one I’ve been sitting on for a while and promised the recipe way back in lockdown mid last year, but I got distracted by the amount of nothing I was doing. Isn’t it amazing how the less busy you get the less you manage to get done?
Please don’t let the word panna cotta put you off. Maybe it’s just me, but historically I am not at all a fan. I think I was scarred by a version that was served up in college, soap-like and jiggly and textureless and eaten after too much cheap wine. I tried it again at The Engine Room and concluded it was that specific college panna cotta that was dreadful, rather than all panna cottas of the species, and I shouldn’t tar them all with that brush. In theory. I still can’t shake the fear that any panna cotta I ever order might turn out like soap, and so am never adventurous enough to venture from the much safer chocolate puddings and tarte tatins and tiramisus of a dessert menu. Or maybe I still just don’t like panna cotta.
Regardless, this is not a panna cotta as you know it. Instead, it is a cake drenched in the stuff – bathed in vanilla cream, not unlike a bread and butter pudding. It somehow soaks evenly through the almond and raspberry sponge without a hint of sogginess. Moist and dense, but never ever wet. Dark chocolate ganache painted all over and toasted coconut finishes it off. It’s not too sweet but very rich, and could just as easily be served up with a morning coffee as it could be with a scoop of cream for dessert. It’s inspired by the legendary panna cotta lamingtons of Sydney’s Flour & Stone, using my favourite almond raspberry cake base and simplifying it a little for ease of weeknight cake baking rather than weekend project (not that we don’t love the latter).
- 150 g unsalted butter room temperature
- 150 g caster sugar
- 3 medium eggs room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
- 150 g plain flour
- 50 g ground almonds / almond meal
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 1/4 cup frozen raspberries
- 400 ml cream (pouring cream, not thickened)
- 80 g caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
- 2 gelatine sheets
- 160 g dark chocolate
- 125 ml cream
- coconut flakes to decorate
-
Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 20cm round cake tins with baking paper
-
In the bowl of a stand beater or with an electric mixer, cream the butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition.
-
Beat in the vanilla and salt
-
Fold in the ground almonds, sifted flour and baking powder just until there is still some flour remaining, then add the milk and stir until just combined.
-
Spoon half the cake mix into the tin, level the surface and top with half the raspberries. Spoon the remaining batter over the top and repeat with remaining berries.
-
Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out just clean or with a few crumbs.
-
While the cake is in the oven, soak the gelatin leaves in cold water to soften.
-
When you remove the cake from the oven: place the cream, sugar, and scraped vanilla pod in a saucepan. Stir and warm over low heat until sugar is dissolved.
-
Remove the gelatin leaves from the water and squeeze any excess water from them with your hands.
-
Remove the cream mixture from the heat and add the gelatin leaves. Whisk well until all the gelatin leaves have completely dissolved.
-
Strain through a fine sieve.
-
Use a thin skewer to spear holes into the cake to allow the panna cotta mixture to soak in more evenly.
-
Pour the warm panna cotta mix over the warm cake and leave to soak in. If the cake is cold, it doesn’t absorb the cream very well, and as the cream cools the gelatin makes it too thick to soak in properly. Once soaked it (it can take about an hour to soak in fully), cover the cake and place in the fridge overnight.
-
The next day, remove the cake from the tin and place on a serving plate.
-
To make the ganache, finely chop the dark chocolate and place in a bowl. Heat the cream in a small pot until just simmering, then pour over the chocolate. Leave for 5 minutes, then whisk with a fork until completely smooth and homogenous.
-
Leave the ganache for about 30 min – 1 hour (depending on the temperature of the room) to thicken enough that you can frost the cake with it.
-
Toast coconut flakes in the oven to decorate if desired.
-
Use an offset spatula or similar to coat the sides and top of the cake in ganache. Cover the sides in coconut flakes.
-
You can either serve it cold from the fridge, in which case the cake will be fairly firm, or leave out for an hour or so to soften it – up to you.
-
Keeps well in an airtight container in the fridge.
Hello, would love to make this. Could you please tell me what gelatin leaves you use for the recipe….. gold strength or titanium?
Thank you,
Angela