Chocolate Coconut Squares

1. step 1
2. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and line the base of a 20cm square baking tin. Beat together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy, then beat in the eggs. Add 1 tbsp of the flour if the mix starts to curdle.
3. step 2
4. Sieve in the flour, baking powder and cocoa and fold in with a metal spoon. Stir in the milk. Scrape mix into the tin and level the top. Bake for 18-20 mins or until the cake springs back when pressed. Allow to cool in the tin.
   18–20 minutes
5. step 3
6. To make the icing, put the chocolate, butter and 4 tbsp water in a pan and gently heat until melted. Allow to cool slightly, then beat in the icing sugar.
7. step 4
8. Remove cake from tin and peel away paper. Cut into 16 squares. Dip the squares into the icing, then roll in the coconut. Allow to set on cooling rack.

Cooking notes

Baked goods are unforgiving with rounding — use weights rather than volumes whenever possible, and verify pan capacity if you scale up or down significantly.

For volume-to-weight conversions of any ingredient — flour, sugar, butter, salts — use the ingredient converter. To translate the recipe's oven temperature between °C, °F and gas mark, see the temperature converter.

When you scale this recipe up or down, remember that cooking time does not scale linearly. A doubled cake takes longer, but not twice as long; a doubled soup takes roughly twice as long. The cooking-time guide gives sensible starting estimates by dish geometry.