The great lamington hoax of 2014 reignited gastronomic tensions between the two Australasian nations. There have long been disputes between New Zealanders and Aussies regarding the ownership of certain distinctive dishes. Pavlova is a case in point. There are those who claim it was invented by Herbert Sachse at the Esplanade Hotel in Perth in 1935. However, an almost identical recipe, called Pavlova cake, appeared in a New Zealand publication in 1929. Score one for the Kiwis.

Similarly, there has been controversy over the origins of the Anzac biscuit. The earliest New Zealand reference is in St Andrew’s Cookery Book, published in Dunedin in 1921, where they were called Anzac Crispies. However, the Melbourne newspaper The Argus published a recipe for Anzac Biscuits or Crispies in September 1920.  Let’s call it one all.  But there have also been unresolved squabbles over the Iced Vo Vo and Billy Tea.

Against the background of this culinary bickering, The Guardian put the cat among the pigeons with a 2014 article suggesting Australia’s national cake, the lamington, also originated in the Land of the Long White Cloud. The first Australian recipe for the lamington was published in 1900 and the cake was named after Lord Lamington, then Governor of Queensland (or possibly after Lady Lamington, his wife). The Guardian article quoted sources from the University of Auckland, claiming that a painting by local artist JR Smyth, dated 1888, clearly showed a lamington. The online article helpfully showed the painting with said cake circled.

The cake in the picture, described as  “a double sponge dessert, dressed in shavings of coconut intended to imitate the snow-capped mountains of New Zealand”, was, they asserted, called a Wellington. The article suggested that when Lord Lamington visited New Zealand in 1895, before he became Queensland’s Governor, he discovered the cake and subsequently had it renamed and recreated in Australia.

Not every reader immediately twigged to the date of the article: April 1. Or realised that the name of the author, Olaf Priol, was an anagram of April Fool. The lamington hoax has left ripples that continue to this day. Some still believe our beloved lamington (aka the mythical Wellington) was invented by Kiwis. Let me assure you – it wasn’t.