Grandma's Recipes Chocolate Cocoa Cake

Grandma's desserts are recipes created during simpler times. The desserts were meant for family reunions, church socials, and everyday living. All from a small kitchen in a small town with big love. 

Last summer, I started baking Grandma's recipes. She had cookbooks by the dozens with formulations of some of the most delicious sweets you'll ever try. Some of the ideas were hers and others were friends, family, or small improvements to published cookbooks. 

Are you interested in nostalgia baking? If so, Grandma's Recipes is the place for you. Take a trip down memory lane with her use of butter, sugar, and all things sweet. 

Some of my fondest memories of my Grandma involved her homestyle cooking. The food was always the perfect combination of sweet and savory. I don't recall a lot of heat, but the sweet and savory, definitely.

All the baking that I remember took place in her kitchen on Church St. in West Tennessee. As a child, our families would gather on holidays or a typical Sunday meal after church. The women helped in the kitchen. The men sat in the den watching sports. The children played outside or were in one of two bedrooms playing with a jar full of buttons. It was heaven. 

Today, I'll share a little slice of heaven with this chocolate cocoa cake. 

Chocolate Cocoa Cake
 
Ingredients:
¾ cup of butter
1 ¾ cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
¾ cup cocoa
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 1/3 cup water
​
Directions: Cream the butter and sugar until creamy and fluffy. 

​Add the eggs and vanilla and beat for one minute. Add the flour, cocoa, and salt alternatively with water to the creamed mixture.

​Pour the batter into two oiled and floured pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let it cool for 10 minutes. When the cakes are cool, take out of the pans for icing. See the chocolate icing ingredients and directions below.

Ingredients for chocolate icing:
¾ cup cocoa
2-2/3 cup powdered sugar
6 T. of butter (unsalted)
5 or 6 T. of milk
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix all the ingredients and spread on each layer of the cake.