This moist cake will keep for up to five days stored at room temperature. You can substitute the golden caster sugar for regular caster sugar, and the coffee can be swapped for strong tea.


Method

• Preheat the oven to 170°C (fan). Grease and line two 20cm (8-inch) sandwich tins with baking parchment.
  

• Dissolve the instant espresso powder in the boiling water, pop to one side and allow to cool completely. In a large bowl, tumble in the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Whisk the dry ingredients together to fully combine and remove any lumps.
  

• Make a small well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the cooled coffee, eggs, honey, vegetable oil and orange juice. Whisk until fully combined and no lumps remain.
  

• Divide the batter equally between the two prepared tins. It may look as if there isn’t nearly enough batter in the tins, but these cakes almost quadruple in size while baking. Give the tins 3 sharp taps on the counter to remove any pockets of air and bake in the centre of the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until a cake skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean.
  

• Allow the cakes to cool completely in their tins.
  

• For the honey butter frosting, combine the butter, icing sugar, cinnamon and salt together in a large bowl. Drizzle in the honey and continue beating until fully incorporated and the frosting has a light and airy consistency.
  

• Remove the cooled cakes from their tins, place one on your desired serving plate and cover with half of the frosting. Carefully stack the second cake and cover it with the remaining frosting.
  

• Decorate with dried apple slices or edible flowers.
  
  

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