Ros Shelton, her mum, friends and staff rallied to fill the order of 328 dozen lamingtons for Taree Christian College and set up a production line in the commercial kitchen that smelt of sweet cake, chocolate icing and coconut for days.

"It was the biggest lamington drive we have ever had," reveals Ros. "We just got stuck into it."

Over many years Ros says she has made and eaten her fair share of lamingtons, and laughingly admits, "I like my cake!" adding, "I have no preference for plain or cream-filled lamingtons, I like both, but the plain lamington sells the best."

News of National Lamington Day, this Sunday July 21, took Ros by surprise but says Harrington Bakehouse is keen to take part in the celebration of the Australian food icon and staff are making extra lamingtons for sale over the weekend.

Taree Christian College acted to embrace the suggestion of a lamington drive by Ros's daughter, year 10 student Chloe Shelton.

"We were so surprised by how many were ordered and we had to do the delivery to the school in two drops. We were just overwhelmed," Ros said.

"We do heaps of them (lamington drives) and I think we may now be one of a few bakeries that do it."

Taree Christian College decided to cash in on the broad sales appeal of the lamington to boost its ongoing fundraising campaign to support farmers affected by drought in 2018.

The school rallied its students and parents to support the lamington drive, and it resulted in 328 dozen being sold at $12 a bag to enable profit of $2425 to be given to RU Aware We Care.

Jenny Fletcher worked to help co-ordinate the school's lamington drive and said, "I was a bit blown away by the sales and the amount we were able to raise with it."

National Lamington Day is on July 21 and according to the Australian Lamington Appreciation Society, the lamington was "created through an accident at work by a maid-servant to Lord Lamington, the thoroughly-British eighth Governor of Queensland."

"The maid-servant was working at Government House in Brisbane when she accidentally dropped the Governor's favourite sponge cake into some melted chocolate.

"Lord Lamington was not a person of wasteful habits and suggested that it be dipped in coconut to cover the chocolate to avoid messy fingers. Lord Lamington devoured this new taste sensation with great delight and the maid-servant's error was proclaimed a magnificent success by all! The Governor however is on the record as calling them "those bloody poofy woolly biscuits".

Lord Lamington was the Governor of Queensland from 9 April 1896 to 19 December 1901."

Did you know the Manning River Times is now offering breaking news alerts and a weekly email newsletter? Keep up-to-date with all the local news: SIGN UP HERE.