Devil's Food Cake

They call it devil's food cake for a reason. And that reason is this cake will tempt you. You'll try to fight it, you'll tell yourself "Daphne you've already had a slice, you're done. Walk away." and then you'll think "It's got milk in it, and milk has calcium in it right? So its technically healthy for you, so its ok!" 

You will happily reach for that second piece knowing that you're building strong muscles, and then before you know it, half the cake is gone! So you see this cake is bad, it is a bad cake...but oh so good at the same time!

I thought Labor Day was the perfect time to make something for my family, we would have a nice dinner, spend some quality time together, it was going to be a great day! Little did I know that it would thunder storm and rain buckets all day long. Which is bad enough in itself, but then both my mom and my sister got sick! Like really sick.

So I made this cake as a pick me up, to turn my icky day around. It was the smartest idea I ever had, because all though my sister and my mom couldn't enjoy it, my dad and I sure had a great time devouring this delicious cake. That was only made better with a little side of vanilla ice cream!

 Ingredients:

 2 cups all-purpose flour

 1 teaspoon salt

 1 teaspoon baking powder

 2 teaspoons baking soda

 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

 2 cups sugar

 1 cup vegetable oil

 1 cup hot coffee

 1 cup milk

 2 large eggs

 1 teaspoon vanilla 

For Icing:

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)

2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 325°F.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Add oil, coffee and milk and mix at medium speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and beat 2 more minutes. Expect batter to be thin.

Pour into a 9" x 13" greased and floured pan or 2- 9" round pans. Bake 9 x 13 pan for about 45 minutes or 9" pans for about 30 minutes. Cool in pans for about 15 minutes and then cool completely on racks.

While cake is cooling:

In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.