Try This Cake

Seriously. This cake is just that good. I feel like surely I must be overstating, but this might be the best chocolate cake I've ever eaten. The recipe comes from an old Penzey's Spice catalog and I finally tried it yesterday. I will be making it again, for sure.

Aunt Velma's Chocolate Cake

2 c. flour
1/2 c. cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 c. butter
2 c. sugar
2 c. boiling water
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt (note: I skip the sifting step 99.999% of the time, but I wouldn't skip it w/this recipe). In a separate bowl, cream together vanilla, butter and sugar. Add boiling water, blend, then add eggs and mix until well blended. Gradually add dry ingredients and mix well. Pour into ungreased 9x13 pan and bake for 30 minutes.

Penzey's also tags a buttercream frosting recipe to go with the cake but, I'll be honest, I think it would have been way too much frosting for this moist, rich cake and I halved it and purposely tried to get a runnier consistency. I am sharing the halved recipe here, so if you want lots of gooey frosting, double the following.

1/2 lb, powdered sugar, sifted (I skipped the sifting here to no ill-effects)
1/6-1/4 c. soft butter
1/16 tsp. salt (skip if using salted butter)
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1.5-3.5 tbsp. milk

Beat together powdered sugar, butter, salt and vanilla. Add enough milk to get good spreading consistency. For chocolate frosting (which I did and would highly recommend) add 1/4 c. cocoa powder. Adding the cocoa powder will necessitate more milk, however.