Recipe - Perfect Chocolate Cake

1 cup Cocoa
2 cup Boiling water
1 cup Butter, softened
2 One half cup Sugar
4 Eggs
2 Three fourths cup Flour (I used cake flour and
suggest others do so also)
2 teaspoon Baking soda
One half teaspoon Baking powder
One half teaspoon Salt
1 One half teaspoon Vanilla
Whipped Cream Filling:
1 cup Whipping cream,
1 teaspoon Vanilla, and
One fourth cup Sifted powdered sugar
Perfect Chocolate Frosting:
1 (6 oz) package semesweet
chocolate morsels,
One half cup Half and half,
Three fourths cup Butter
2 One half cup Sifted powdered sugar

This cake is from the December 1990 "Southern Living" article on the best
recipes of the past 25 years. We've tried it, and it is a stunner! First
printed in December 1977, a recipe submitted by Dondee Gage Steves of San
Antonio, Texas.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3 9" round cake pans.

Combine cocoa and boiling water, stir until smooth, then set aside.

Cream butter, gradually add sugar, beating well at mdm speed of an electric
mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Combine flour, soda, baking powder, and salt; add to creamed mixture
alternating with cocoa mixture, beating at low speed of an electric mixer,
beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Stir in the vanilla. Do not
overbeat.

Pour pans and ake 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the
center comes out clean. Cool pans 10 minutes. Remove the cake from pans;
cool completely.

Spread filling between layers; spread frosting on top and sides. Chill
until serving time.

Filling: Beat whipping cream and vanilla until foamy. Gradually add
powdered sugar, beating until soft peaks form. Chill.

Yield: 2 c

Frosting: Combine chocolate, half and half, and butter in a heavy saucepan;
cook over mdm heat, stirring until chocolate melts (I used a glass
measuring cup and the microwave). Remove from heat; add powdered sugar,
mixing well.

Set saucepan in ice, and beat at low speed of an electric mixer until the
frosting holds its shape and loses its gloss. Add a few more drops of
halfandhalf if needed to make spreading consistency.

Yield: 2 One half c

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