MOIST CHOCOLATE CAKE

This is the perfect chocolate cake to bake for a chocolate lover's birthday. It's also delicious as a special holiday dessert or a sweet Valentine's Day treat. Do your heart some good - bake a dark chocolate cake!

Ingredients:
1/2 C. butter or margarine, softened
1/2 C. sugar
2 eggs
3/4 C. unsweetened baking cocoa
2 C. flour
pinch of salt
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 C. milk
1 C. strong coffee, cooled
1 tsp. vanilla

Mixing and Baking Instructions:
1. Sift dry ingredients together; set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy; beat in eggs 1 at a time.
3. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk, beating gently until combined.
4. Add coffee and vanilla and stir just until well blended.
5. Bake in 2 greased and floured 9-inch cake pans at 350 degrees F, or until cake tests done. (Cake is done when toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.) Begin testing layers after about 20 minutes baking time.
6. Cool cake layers for 15 minutes or until pans are easy to handle. Remove cake layers carefully from pans. 7. Complete cooling on cake racks.
8. Assemble and frost the cooled cake layers with Chocolate Icing (recipe below) or your favorite butter cream icing or whipped cream.

Chocolate Icing:
1/2 C. butter or margarine (1 stick),melted
1 box (2 C.) confectioner's sugar/powdered sugar
2 Tbl. unsweetened baking cocoa
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. milk
Melt butter in saucepan; remove from heat and stir in sugar and cocoa, then add vanilla and milk.
Stir icing until glossy and thick. Cool slightly and spread on cake with spatula.

NOTES
- Do not substitute low-fat or "light" margarine for the butter in these recipes.
- This chocolate cake recipe can also be baked as cupcakes or as a sheet cake.