One-half cup of butter, one and one-half cups of sugar, two cups of sifted flour, one-half cup of milk, three eggs, two level teaspoons of cream of tartar and one-half teaspoon of baking soda, sifted twice with the flour.

Cream the butter, add the sugar gradually, continuing the creaming, then cook until smooth and glossy one-half cake of unsweetened chocolate, five tablespoonfuls of boiling water and one-half cup more of sugar. Add this mixture to the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs (yolks and whites beaten together), then the milk and flour alternately a little at a time. Beat vigorously a moment, turn into three large or four small layer cake tins and bake from twenty to twenty-five minutes. When cool spread between layers and on top boiled icing made of three cups of sugar, one cup of boiling water and whites of three eggs, add while beating one cup of blanched almonds sliced thin lengthwise and flavor with vanilla or rosewater. If baked in four layers, this makes two nice cakes.