Flour & Stone Bakery, Sydney

I sought out a lamington.

I don't like lamingtons.  But I sought this one out.

Let's back up.  If you haven't been to Australia, you may not know what a lamington is. And there is good reason for that.  Unlike some fantastic Australia-only creations (fairy bread! wedges with sweet chili and sour cream!), lamingtons have no reason to spread further abroad.  Yet Australia celebrates "National Lamington Day" (not that I can really poke fun, the US has a slew of ridiculous food holidays).  They just aren't very good.

Ok, clearly just my opinion, but lamingtons are square cakes, usually just a fairly boring sponge or butter cake, with a very thin layer of chocolate on the outside, and coated in coconut.  Sometimes they have jam or cream spread between two layers of cake.  But usually, they are just dry cakes, with no frosting, made dryer by tons of dry coconut flakes covering the outside.  I really, truly dislike them.  Not that I tend to like cake in general, but at least most cake has frosting and toppings.  These ... just offer nothing to me.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about Flour & Stone, a bakery in Sydney.  Sure, I love baked goods, but in a city with sooo many wonderful treats, why would I seek out a bakery, known for its lamington, of all things?  And known they are.  Fairly universally known for having "the best lamington in Sydney".  And, a non-traditional one at that, which is the part that made me interested.  More on this soon.

Four & Stone is a bakery-cafe, with some breakfast and lunch offerings, coffee and tea, and a bunch of other baked goods, but, I was there on a mission for one and only one thing.  That lamington.  I was ready to find out if I could like a lamington.

Storefront.

Flour & Stone is located a bit off the main drag, down Riley St, on a reasonably quiet street.  There are a few small tables here on the sidewalk (photo taken above them, to respect the patrons dining).

Inside.

That is, until you get inside.

The space is *tiny* with just a couple tables, and enough space for a line to form inside to order.  You cannot see the goodies at the counter until you reach the front, which I'm sure slows things down a bit.

It ... is busy.  Everything looks delicious.

Custom Box.

But I was there for one item: the lamington.

It came in a custom, "lamington" stamped box.  This actually turned me off a bit, almost like the strong branding around Dominique Ansel's cronut.

And note, the box is large because ... the lamington is large.  Quite large.  And as I said, non-traditional.

This lamington is actually known as "the panna cotta lamington".  So now you might understand my interest.  I like panna cotta, enough so that I have a label on my blog for it.  But ... isn't this *still* just a lamington?

Lamington. $8.50.

"Vanilla sponge soaked in pannacotta, berry compote centre, dark chocolate and flaked coconut. Nut free."

I opened the box, and, yup, it looked like a lamington, albeit a much larger than normal one, with larger flakes of coconut.  But still, that sure looked like a lamington.

I took a tiny bite off the edge.  Yup, just dry flaked coconut.  I love toasted coconut, but regular dried coconut is so ... dry?  Meh.  Under it was a little bit of chocolate, just a thin layer as always, not enough to really taste.

This still seemed like a lamington ...

Lamington: Inside.

And then, I hit the cake.

Ok, the cake was certainly *not* regular lamington cake!  It was moist, rich, and infused with custard.  Not a layer of custard inside, instead it was more like a bread pudding in that it had soaked it all up.  Imagine making a bread pudding with cake as the base?  Or, ok, fine, imagine infusing a cake with a panna cotta.  Because, that, really, is what it was.  It was so dense and heavy.  There was almost a caramelized nature to the edges as well, although it was masked by the chocolate.

And there was a layer of grown up berry jam, a fruity compote, which was needed to balance the heavy nature of this item.

I had really mixed feelings on this.  On one hand, yes, it was the best lamington I've ever had.  But I still really did not care for the coating.  I was happy to eat the cake, and the compote, and think that with a dollop of whipped cream, it would be fabulous.  And it was good.  I did finish it, over the course of two days (they keep refrigerated for up to 4 days, says the bakery).

But would I get another? Nah.  And was it pricey, at $8.50?  Absolutely.