Cocoa Cake/Butter Frosting (1967) ★★★

This recipe comes from a Canadian classic, The All New Purity Cook Book. The book is a contemporary reproduction of a cook book from 1967, however this is not the first edition of the book, so many of the recipes are adaptations from the 1920s and earlier. This recipe for Cocoa Cake is super simple and takes no more effort than using a boxed mix. I wanted cupcakes when I made these, so I simply used a muffin tin and baked for ~18 minutes.

86. Cocoa Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a 9" square pan or two 8" round layer pans. Line the bottom with waxed paper.
Cream
1/2 cup shortening
Gradually blend in
1 cup sugar
Beat until light and fluffy.
Add
2 well-beaten eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Beat until well combined.
Blend or sift together
1 1/2 cups Pre-Sifted PURITY All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup cocoa
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, alternately with
1 cup milk
Combine well after each addition.
Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated 350 degree oven - 45 to 50 minutes for a square cake, 30 to 35 minutes for a layer cake.

119. Butter Frosting
Cream
3 tablespoons soft butter or margarine
Beat in
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Few grains salt
Blend in
2 cups sifted icing sugar
alternately with
2 to 2 1/2 tablespoons warm cream or milk
Beat until smooth and of spreading consistency. Add more sifted icing sugar or milk, if necessary.
Yield: Frosts an 8" or 9" square cake or pan of squares, or about 1 1/2 dozen medium-size cup cakes. Double the recipe to fill and frrost an 8" or 9" layer cake.
NOTES: 1. An egg yolk may be added for extra richness.
2. You may vary the frosting by using different flavouring extracts in place of the vanilla - maple, butterscotch, almond, coconut, strawberry, lemon, peppermint, etc.

The Verdict:
This cake is quite dense, but still good. I feel like it may have been lighter if I had beaten it more. It is not very chocolately or sweet, so I think a chocolate frosting would really make this good.
The frosting was an ordinary sugary frosting. I added raspberry flavouring.

Modernized Recipe:
This recipe is essentially modern, so I followed it exactly as written in the book.