Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake

This is my grandmother Ruby’s old-fashioned chocolate cake recipe.  My mom and little sister love this recipe.  In the past, I’ve been assigned to make this 3-layer cake for their birthdays.  When mom was growing up, she shared a birthday with my grampa – and it sometimes fell on Thanksgiving, so grama would make this cake for them.  One layer for mom, one for grampa and one for the turkey.  Mom started doing this for my youngest sister, Samantha, this year… except I had to make the cake.  Her birthday is the day before mom’s so they still celebrate with a layer for mom, a layer for Samantha and a layer for the turkey.

My favorite part of this recipe is the icing, it’s super amazing, so use it for more than just this cake.  Trust me.  I usually double the icing batch to have enough for icing the 3 layer cake.

Cake Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons Butter
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla
• 3 Eggs
• 2 1/2 cups Sugar
• 4 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
• 2 1/2 cups Flour
• 1 1/4 cups Milk
• 1 cup Nuts (optional)

Cake Instructions:

1. Melt chocolate over stove.
2. In large mixing bowl, cream butter and add egg yolks, beat.
3. Add  1/2 of the sugar, beat.
4. Add sifted flour and milk alternately.
5. Add melted chocolate.
6. In separate bowl, beat egg whites gradually adding the rest of sugar, making a meringue.
7. Fold egg whites into cake batter.
8. Add baking powder (and nuts if desired).
9. Bake at 350 degrees in 3 floured 8-inch cake pans for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
10. Allow to cool before removing from pans and icing.

Icing Ingredients:

• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 7 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
• 3 tablespoons butter

Icing Instructions:

1. Mix powdered sugar, milk and vanilla in bowl.
2. Melt chocolate over the stove.
3. Add melted chocolate and butter to sugar mixture, combine thoroughly.