Fire Engine Red Cake Recipe

Cake: mix vinegar and soda; let stand. Cream sugar, shortening, and eggs. Make a paste of the cocoa and some of the food coloring. Add paste to the creamed mixture and mix well. Add the rest of the food coloring and mix well. Mix in the buttermilk and the flour mixed with the salt, alternating buttermilk and flour mixture. Mix in the vanilla. Stir the vinegar and soda mixture. Add it to the cake batter and mix well. Bake in greased, 8 or 9" round layer pans at 350 for about 30 minutes. Cool. Frost with Not-Too-Rich-Frosting*, but do not frost the sides. Store in a cake keeper.

*Not-Too-Rich-Frosting: cook flour and milk until thick, stirring constantly. Cool. Cream the sugar, butter, and vanilla. Combine one spoonful cooled flour mixture with the other mixture. Beat well. Gradually add the rest of the cooked mixture, one spoonful at a time, beating constantly. Spread the completed frosting onto the middle layer and top layers of the cooled cake. Do not frost the sides of the cake.