Struth! 'e was a ripper!

'ey, mate! Can you guess what's on the menu for tonight? It's traditional New York black and white cookies...Aussie-style! We're all familiar with the popular City treat: a cakey cookie, adorned with vanilla and chocolate fondant; but few are savvy Australian foodies. It turns out, according to a few of my Australian mates, that a sweet treat called the lamington is one of the most popular desserts in the land Down Under. A lamington, by definition, is a small cube of day-old butter cake, decorated with chocolate icing and dipped in coconut flakes. YUM! The tantalizing flavor of this dessert has has even earned a spot on the Australian calendar: "National Lamington Day" is celebrated on July 21 each year!

The work to reinvent the lamington was cut out for me: to embrace the simple flavors that make this dessert such a hit, I turned to one of the most classic confections in America. The black and white cookie stood out as the perfect base to deliver the Down Under taste I was seeking. The differences between the lamington and the black and white cookie are subtle, but very natural to work with. Butter cake=sponge cake cookie; chocolate icing=chocolate ganache; coconut flakes=vanilla ganache. The final product? Well, you'll see below that these Black and White Lollies really are rippers!