Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (165°C fan****, Gas Mark 4). Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans or one 9x13 inch pan.
2. In large bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the centre.
3. Add eggs, (cooled) coffee, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Beat for 2 minutes on medium speed. Batter will be thin. Pour into prepared pans.
4. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into centre of cake comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and finish cooling on a wire rack. Fill and frost as desired.
5. The cake can be iced using a normal chocolate or coffee buttercream, or using the separate swiss meringue buttercream recipe.

Tips

• * You can use less sugar than in the recipe (up to about 15%/60g less)
• ** The coffee is important even if you don’t want to taste the coffee. I use proper espresso shots for this (2 shots if you don’t want to taste the coffee, and 4 shots if you do). You can use instant coffee also, but be careful of using too much because it’ll come out a bit bitter.
• *** You can use sour cream or creme fraiche instead of buttermilk - you’ll just need to add closer to the full amount of sugar to counteract the sourness.
• **** It’s not clear whether this is the fan or no fan temperature. 165C fan has worked out better for me in terms of giving a more even bake.