Chocolate Cake

For two sheets of cake, use three ounces of Chocolate, three eggs, one cupful and three-fourths of sifted pastry flour, one cupful and three-fourths of sugar, half a cupful of butter, half a cupful of milk, half a teaspoonful of vanilla extract, one teaspoonful and a half of baking powder. 

Grate the chocolate. Beat the butter to a cream, and gradually beat in the sugar. Beat in the milk and vanilla, then the eggs (already well beaten), next the chocolate, and finally the flour, in which the baking powder should be mixed. Pour into two well buttered shallow cake pans. Bake for twenty-five minutes in a moderate oven. Frost or not, as you like. 

CHOCOLATE LAYER CAKE 

Beat half a cupful of butter to a cream, and gradually beat into it one cupful of sugar. When this is light, beat in half a cupful of milk, a little at a time, and one teaspoonful of vanilla. Beat the whites of six eggs to a stiff froth. Mix half a teaspoonful of baking powder with two scant cupfuls of sifted flour. Stir the flour and whites of eggs alternately into the mixture.

Have three deep tin plates well buttered, and spread two-thirds of the batter in two of them.  Into the remaining batter stir one ounce of Chocolate, melted, and spread this batter in the third plate. Bake the cakes in a moderate oven for about twenty minutes. Put a layer of white cake on a large plate, and spread with white icing. Put the dark cake on this, and also spread with white icing. On this put the third cake. Spread with chocolate icing.

TO MAKE THE ICING

Put into a granite-ware saucepan two gills of sugar and one of water, and boil gently until bubbles begin to come from the bottom—say, about five minutes. Take from the fire instantly. Do not stir or shake the sugar while it is cooking. Pour the hot syrup in a thin stream into the whites of two eggs that have been beaten to a stiff froth, beating the mixture all the time. Continue to beat until the icing is thick. Flavor with one teaspoonful of vanilla. Use two-thirds of this as a white icing, and to the remaining third add one ounce of melted chocolate. To melt the chocolate, shave it fine and put in a cup, which is then to be placed in a pan of boiling water.

CHOCOLATE MARBLE CAKE 

Put one ounce of Chocolate and one tablespoonful of butter in a cup, and set this in a pan of boiling water. Beat to a cream half a cupful of butter and one cupful of sugar. Gradually beat in half a cupful of milk. Now add the whites of six eggs beaten to a stiff froth, one teaspoonful of vanilla, and a cupful and a half of sifted flour, in which is mixed one teaspoonful of baking powder. Put about one-third of this mixture into another bowl, and stir the melted butter and chocolate into it. Drop the white-and-brown mixture in spoonfuls into a well buttered deep cake pan, and bake in a moderate oven for about forty-five minutes; or, the cake can be baked in a sheet and iced with a chocolate or white icing. 

CHOCOLATE GLACÉ CAKE 

Beat to a cream a generous half cupful of butter, and gradually beat into this one cupful of sugar. Add one ounce of Chocolate, melted; also two unbeaten eggs. Beat vigorously for five minutes; then stir in half a cupful of milk, and lastly, one cupful and a half of flour, with which has been mixed one generous teaspoonful of baking powder. Flavor with one teaspoonful of vanilla. Pour into a buttered, shallow cake pan, and bake for half an hour in a moderate oven. When cool, spread with glacé frosting.
 
GLACÉ FROSTING

Put half a cupful of sugar and three tablespoonfuls of water in a small saucepan. Stir over the fire until the sugar is nearly melted. Take the spoon from the pan before the sugar really begins to boil, because it would spoil the icing if the syrup were stirred after it begins to boil. After boiling gently for four minutes, add half a teaspoonful of vanilla extract, but do not stir; then set away to cool. When the syrup is about blood warm, beat it with a wooden spoon until thick and white. Now put the saucepan in another with boiling water, and stir until the icing is thin enough to pour. Spread quickly on the cake.