Gay Nineties Chocolate Cake

In honor of my dear son's 17th birthday, I am making this chocolate cake that was/is a staple of my mother's kitchen. I don't know where it got its name. It's nothing personal. It was called Gay Nineties Chocolate Cake back in the Sixties.

Ingredients List

4 squares unsweetened baking chocolate

4 tablespoons butter

2 c. white sugar

1 egg

1-3/4 c. milk (or substitute coffee for part of the milk for a mocha flavor)

1 tsp. vanilla

2 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

Instructions

In a double boiler over simmering water, melt the chocolate with the butter. Remove the chocolate from the heat before it is completely melted and allow the residual heat to complete the melting. Pour the chocolate into a mixer bowl and set it aside to cool a bit.

Fold the flour, salt and baking soda together in another bowl. Set aside.

To the cooled chocolate, with the mixer running on low, add the sugar and stir together. Add the egg and 1 c. of the milk. Next, add the dry ingredients and stir till moistened. Then add the rest of the milk and the vanilla and stir just until blended.

Divide the batter between two 9-inch layer cake pans prepared with shortening and circles of waxed paper or parchment laid in the bottom.

Bake cakes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes until test done. Cool on racks. Remove from pans and ice as desired.