1. Preheat the oven to 350⁰F (180⁰C).
2. Grease a 20 x 30 cm rectangular cake tin and line the base with baking paper if you want an easier lift later.
3. Add 250 g softened butter, 1 cup castor sugar, 3 cups sifted plain flour, 4 eggs, 4 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp vanilla essence and 1 cup milk to a large mixing bowl.
4. Beat everything together for about 5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice, until the batter is smooth and well incorporated. Don’t worry if it’s a fairly thick cake batter.
5. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared tin.
6. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the top is lightly golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
7. Let the cake cool in the tin for about 10 minutes, then transfer it to a rack and let it cool completely. This bit matters. If the cake is still warm, it’s much more likely to break when you start dipping it.
8. Once completely cool, cut the cake into roughly 24 even squares. You can make them smaller or larger, but try to keep them fairly even so they all get a similar amount of syrup.

Syrup:

1. Add 2 1/2 cups water, 2 1/2 cups icing sugar, 4 tbsp cocoa powder and 2 tbsp butter to a saucepan.
2. Whisk over medium heat until the cocoa and icing sugar are dissolved and the mixture is smooth.
3. Bring the syrup to a gentle boil over medium heat, stirring regularly. Cook until it’s slightly thickened and feels a little sticky when stirred. Don’t reduce it until it becomes really thick, because it needs to be thin enough to dip the cake squares.
4. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let the syrup cool slightly. It should still be warm enough to coat the cake, but not piping hot.
5. Dip each cake square into the warm chocolate syrup, turning it gently so all sides are coated. Don’t leave it sitting in the syrup for too long or the cake can become soggy and fall apart.
6. Let any excess syrup drip back into the saucepan, then immediately roll the coated cake square in desiccated coconut.
7. Place each finished square on a wire rack or baking paper and continue with the remaining cake.
8. For the pink version, skip the chocolate syrup and dip the cake squares in plain syrup instead. Toss the coconut with a little food colouring before rolling the dipped squares in it.
9. Let the finished squares sit for a little while before serving. The coating firms up slightly and the coconut sticks nicely to the syrup.