Work with me...

See! They look just like white blood cells!

(In which Mr. P multi-tasks.)

In terms of academia, I have never really been much of a scientist. I did have a childhood love of chemistry sets, which has been spoken about before, but never really amounted to much of a chemist at school. Or a biologist. Though, some of the girls in my class used to have a real crush on our Biology teacher, who I thinkwas called Mr. Scott, and who wore a leather jacket and rode to school on a motorcycle. I never really understood it. Their taste or Biology both.

However, I have come, somewhat late in life, to enjoy science in a whole new way. Via the medium of blogging and specifically the super-blog known as Not So Humble Pie. Who ever would have guessed that micro-biology and cookies could fuse so deliciously? I have been busting to get onto to one of Ms. Humble's 'Science Cookie Round Ups' for almost a year, but have thus far never had the inclination (or, let's be honest, knowledge) to make a decent attempt.

All that is about to change. They may not be cookies, but these lamingtons are going to get me on that list. I'm re-inventing and science baking at the same time. Who says men can't multi-task?

The science:

I was always under the impression that red blood cells carry the oxygen around your body, and the white ones (which I think look a little like round, poofy lamingtons) fight infectious diseases. As it happens, further research into the matter has revealed my explanation to be true... up to a point. It is a rather 'secondary school' approach. But it works for me. I don't work in a lab.

These lamingtons are actually cake pops. Not heard of them? They made this blogger really famous. I have until this point resisted making them, because I just didn't see the point of going to all the effort of making a cake only to then go and crush it, mix with frosting and roll it into little balls. But having been 'blessed' - ha! - with a ton of left-over cake crumbs from other lamingtons, I decided to get fancy.

Were they worth it?

Well, yes and no. Yes because I got to make White Blood Cell Lamingtons and I have been sitting on the idea since last year. And no, because, well.... I just don't really like them. I'd rather have a real piece of cake. But after dinner, with tea or coffee, they'd be OK. Just not worth crushing a good cake for. Thus, I'm not giving any exact quantities here. I'm not assuming anybody would actually bake specifically for this.

White Blood Cell Lamingtons

You will need:

cake crumbs - I had a bowl full of left over chocolate, ginger and vanilla cake, crumbed

frosting - I used some left over cream cheese icing

white chocolate, melted

coconut

1. Mix the cake crumbs with as much frosting as you need to make a mixture that easily clumps together and can be rolled into balls.
2. Roll it into balls.
3. Chill the balls.
4. Roll the balls in melted white chocolate and then coconut.