1 2 3 4 Cake With Chocolate Frosting

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 3 round 8 or 9 inch X 1-1/2 inch cake pans.

Beat all ingredients except Creamy Chocolate Frosting in large bowl on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly.

Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pans. (If necessary, you can refrigerate remaining batter while two layers are baking; then wash, grease and flour one of the cooled pans to bake the third layer.)

Bake 8-inch pans 33 to 36 minutes, 9-inch pans 30 to 33 minutes or until no indentation is left when touched lightly. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans and cool completely.

Fill layers with 1/3 cup frosting. Frost side and top with remaining frosting.

Creamy Chocolate Frosting: Beat all ingredients on low speed. Stir in additional milk if needed, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, until smooth and of spreading consistency.

cook's notes

This recipe produces enough batter to fill three round cake pans, the perfect foundation for a proud and tall layer cake. Prior to the standardization of measurements, bakers either weighed ingredients or used a teacup to keep measurements uniform. One measure of butter, 2 of sugar, 3 of flour and 4 eggs was the easy way to remember the proportions of this heavy, fine-textured cake. Since that time, milk and leavening have been added to the batter.