Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup sifted flour
  
• 1 teaspooon Calumet Baking Powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 4 tablespoons butter or other fat
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 2 eggs, well beaten
  
• 1/2 cup sour milk
  
• 1/2 cup boiling water
  
• 1/2 cup cocoa
  
• 1 teaspoon soda
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  

Instructions:

• Sift flour once and measure
  
• Add baking powder and salt and sift together three times--set aside
  
• Cream butter thoroughy, add sugar gradually and cream together until light and fluffy
  
• Add eggs and beat vigorously
  
• Add flour, alternately with milk, a small amount at a time. Beat after each addition until smooth.
  
• (Added note: In a separate bowl) add boiling water to cocoa, mixing quickly. Add soda and stir until thick. Cool slightly.
  
• Add (cocoa and soda) mixture to the cake batter, mixing thoroughly.
  
• Add vanilla
  
• Bake as loaf, layers, or cup cakes
  
• Top with cream icing made of sugar, sweet milk and butter
  

Notes:

• This was among my mom's hand written recipies.
  
• All that sifting and beating was to add air to the mixture. And, remember it was all done in my mom's time with a wooden spoon in a large bowl.
  
• Wonder why there is no time in the oven, or temperature noted in the instructions? Well, back then they just added wood to the kitchens cook stove until it was "hot enough" then slid in the cake and cooked it until it was done (not by watching the clock, but by looking at the cake and when it looked about right they would poke the center with a clean knife tip and see if anything stuck to it, if not it was done.
  
• So, where does one buy "sour milk"? In those days, long before electric refrigerators were common in country kitchens in south-central Arkansas, sour milk was what you automatically had plenty of in a couple of days, if you didn't drink it..
  
• That "cream icing" was another masterpiece that everyone knew how to make--it is nothing like the stuff you can by in an can, off the shelf.