THAT VENUS CAKE!

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Get your coffee started. Make it strong. Preheat a convection oven on the fan setting to 180ºC. Grease two 20 cm cake tins and line the bottoms with baking paper.

Sift the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cocoa into a large bowl and whisk thoroughly by hand or with an electric mixer. This mixes them together and lets in air.

Gently add the oil, followed by the buttermilk and then the eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Stir in the vanilla extract.

Put the hot coffee in a jug and add it to the mixture, pouring it down the side of the bowl.

Divide the batter between the two tins and bake for 20 minutes, then turn down the temperature to 160ºC and bake for a further 25–35 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the centre of a cake comes out clean.

Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes before removing

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from the tins, then let the cakes cool completely on a wire rack.

Once cool, if the tops of the cakes are bumpy and crusty, you can use a bread knife to cut them flat. (It is important the cake that will form the bottom layer is flat.)

Spread a generous layer of peanut butter on the bottom cake layer and top it with a comfortable layer of apricot jam. Put the second layer of cake on top.

To make the icing, melt the ingredients – except the teaspoon of crushed coffee – together in a double boiler. (You can also melt them in a mug inside a bowl of boiling water.) Use a fork to mix the ingredients thoroughly.

Allow to cool and thicken, then spread the icing on the top and sides of the cake.

Allow to cool some more (you can even pop the cake in the fridge for a while), then sprinkle over the teaspoon of coffee powder.

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