"Devil's Food" cakes are chocolate cakes flavored with cocoa rather than solid chocolate. This recipe is refined and adapted from Betty Crocker's New Picture Cookbook (1961). It's the best recipe I know for a chocolate cake that is rich and moist at the same time.

Ingredients

Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit/ gas mark 4/ 175 Celcius. Grease and flour 2 round layer pans (8 - 9 inches in diameter, 1 1/2 inches deep), or an oblong pan (13 x 9 x 2 inches).

Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa together. Add shortening and 2/3 of milk and mix. Add the rest of the milk, eggs and vanilla and mix again. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans.

Bake 8 inch layers 35-40 minutes, 9 inch layers 30 - 35 minutes, or an oblong cake 45 - 50 minutes, or until cake tests done.

Frost when cool.