Recipe - Empress Chocolate Cake

INGREDIENTS:
1 One half cup Sifted cake flour
1 cup Ghirardelli Sweet Ground
Chocolate
Three fourths cup Sugar
1 One half teaspoon Baking soda
One fourth teaspoon Cream of tartar
One half teaspoon Salt
2/3 cup Shortening
1 cup Buttermilk
2 Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla

DIRECTIONS: Heat oven to 350F. Into large mixer bowl,
sift flour with Ground Chocolate, sugar, baking soda,
cream of tartar and salt. Add shortening and Three fourths cup
buttermilk. Beat on low speed to combine ingredients.
Beat on medium low speed for 2 minutes. Add remaining
One fourth cup buttermilk, eggs and vanilla. Beat additional
2 minutes. Line two 8 by 1 1/2" round cake pans with
waxed paper. Spread batter into pans. Bake at 350F
for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool on racks 10 minutes; remove
layers from pans.

After completely cooled, frost with Empress Frosting*.

*separate recipe

Source: Recipes from Ghirardelli Chocolate Company of
San Francisco; recipe from box of "Sweet Ground
Chocolate and Cocoa"

From: Sallie Austin

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini