Coffee traybake

1. Preheat an oven to 160 degrees (fan), or equivalent, and line an 18cm x 28cm baking tin with parchment paper.

2. Sieve together the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Assuming the butter is room-temperature soft, add all the other sponge ingredients into the bowl and use a handheld electric whisk (or use a stand mixer) to beat the ingredients together until smooth and well combined (if the batter is very stiff, add a spoonful of boiling water to loosen the consistency).

3. Transfer the mixture to the prepared tin and level with a spatula. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes until risen in the centre, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

4. Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning the sponge out on to a wire rack to cool fully.

5. For the coffee buttercream icing, beat the butter to soften it, then gradually incorporate the sieved icing sugar. Lastly, add the coffee essence. Do not refrigerate the buttercream as it needs to be soft in order to spread evenly over the cake.

6. Use a spatula to spread the buttercream over the surface of the baked and cooled sponge.

Variation

Replace the buttercream icing with coffee glacé icing by gradually adding coffee essence and boiling water to icing sugar.