Ingredients

1/2 lb butter (2 sticks)
1/2 cup shortening (Crisco)
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
4 Tbls unsweetened cocoa powder (Hershey's regular or you can use Dutch-process cocoa)
1 cup milk
1 Tbls vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt

Directions

In one bowl cream the butter, shortening and sugar, then beat in the eggs, the milk and vanilla.

In another bowl mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Beat the dry mix into the batter.

Pour into a greased and floured tube pan (e.g. angel food cake pan or Bundt pan) and bake for 2 hours at 275°F. Check after 1.5 hours. When it starts to crack on the top, it's probably done. Check with a toothpick or knife that it comes out clean.

Cool and remove from pan. Since you serve this cake "upside down" from the way it was baked, you can trim the dome with a bread knife (cake must be fully cooled first) to make it sit flat on the serving plate, but it's perfectly fine to leave it as-is.

Frost with fudge icing or glaze if desired.

Robert's notes:
Store-bought icing heated in the microwave (10 sec at a time so you don't burn it or cause it to explode, etc.) works well for that Bundt-style glaze.

Greasing AND flouring the pan is important for a good release, and shortening for greasing is usually foolproof. You can also use parchment cut out in a circle to fit the bottom (if you're using a flat bottomed tube pan). You can use a knife on the sides so you only need parchment on the bottom.

You can use either natural cocoa or Dutch-process. Dutch cocoa has been processed with alkali and so is pH neutral (or even slightly alkaline). This recipe uses baking powder so you don't need the acidity of natural cocoa. Feel free to use either. The Dutch cocoa is darker if you prefer a deeper color.

This recipe is from Nonie Jones