Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan) and prepare your tin. Grease a 20cm round cake tin and line the base with a circle of baking paper. The paper should lie flat and neat – any wrinkles can create an uneven top.

Sift the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Add the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and salt. Sifting removes lumps and aerates the mixture, so the cake rises evenly. You’ll see a fine, dark brown powder that smells faintly of rich chocolate.

Make a well in the centre and add the wet ingredients. Crack in the eggs, pour in the oil, milk, and vanilla. Stir gently with a wooden spoon until just combined. The batter will look thick and slightly lumpy at this stage – that’s normal.

Pour in the hot coffee and stir until smooth. This is the magic step. The hot liquid thins the batter to a silky, pourable consistency, and the coffee deepens the chocolate flavour without tasting of coffee at all. The batter should be glossy and dark, like melted dark chocolate.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin. Tap the tin firmly on the worktop a couple of times to release any large air bubbles. The surface will look uneven, but it will level as it bakes.

Bake for 30–35 minutes. At the 25-minute mark, the kitchen will smell deeply of chocolate and the cake will have risen into a domed top. Insert a skewer into the centre – it should come out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it, not wet batter. The edges will have pulled away slightly from the tin.

Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. Run a knife around the edge first. The cake will feel springy to the touch and the top will be slightly cracked – that’s the sign of a good rise. Let it cool completely before icing or slicing.