Potato Chocolate Cake by Pearl H. with Fudge Icing by Della G.

This cake took me all day to make and dirtied every dish in the house, but it might be worth it.  I always put garlic in my mashed potatoes, so I didn't think they would work well.  Luckily, I found a box of instant in the back of the cupboard, so I used those.  Once I got the potatoes ready, I realized I had to separate the eggs and beat the egg whites, so I did that.  Then, I got the dry ingredients ready because they alternate with the potatoes, and melted the chocolate so it could cool.  I felt like a cooking show with all my little bowls sitting there ready to make my cake.  The recipe says nothing about how you should cook it, so I guessed and it worked perfectly.  The cake is dense and moist, kind of like my applesauce cake.  It has a really mild chocolate flavor, in fact that is the only complaint we had.  I would experiment with adding more chocolate if I made it again.  The frosting is super fudgy, so that helped with the flavor.  I might have been too much if the cake had more chocolate.

I did have some trouble with the frosting.  I accidentally cooked it too long and it went to sugar.  I ended up adding more milk and cooking it down again, and it worked great.  I think you could cut the salt in half because it is a little too much.  I also proved that you can just dump everything together and boil it for a couple minutes if you don't want to mess with all the steps.  If you cook it less, it would also make a great hot fudge topping.

Potato Chocolate Cake by Pearl H.

1/2 c hot milk
1 c mashed potatoes
2/3 c shortening
2 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 egg yolks
2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 squares unsweetened chocolate
4 egg whites
1 c walnuts (optional)
1/2 c maraschino cherries (optional)

Beat milk and potatoes together, cool.  Cream shortening and sugar, add vanilla and egg yolks and beat well.      Combine flour and baking powder.  Alternately add potato and flour mixtures, beating after each addition.  Add walnuts or cherries with last flour addition if desired.  Add chocolate.  Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold into batter.  Pour into a greased 9x13 pan.  Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool and frost.

Fudge Icing by Della G.

1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c cream or evaporated milk
1/4 c water
1 T corn syrup
1/2 tsp (1/4 tsp) salt
2 sq melted unsweetened baking chocolate
2 T butter

Boil sugar, cream, water, syrup, and salt until soft ball stage.  Cool to room temperature and add chocolate, butter and vanilla.  Beat until thickened.  Or, Dump everything, but vanilla, in the pan and stir until it boils.  Boil 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.  Add vanilla and beat until thick enough to spread.