Birthday cake - a family recipe

Sometimes the simplest things are the still the best.  This is the cake that we always had for birthdays as children, and now I make it too.  I'm pretty sure the recipe is from my great-grandmother, so that makes 5 generations of our family that have enjoyed it.

It's a very basic cocoa-based cake.   It probably could be made into layers, but we always baked it in a square time and iced it still in the tin.  

Chocolate Cake

8"x8" pan

1/3 cup cocoa

1/3 cup butter or shortening  (80g)

1/2 cup boiling water

1 cup sugar (200g)

1/2 cup buttermilk or yogurt or sour milk

1 cup flour (120g)

1 rounded tsp baking soda

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

Put cocoa, butter, water in saucepan and bring to boil. Cook until it thickens.

Pour chocolate mixture into bowl.  Stir in remaining ingredients in order listed. Beat hard for 2-3 minutes.  Pour into greased and floured pan. Bake in 350 deg. oven for 35-40 minutes