Cold Water Cocoa Cake

Welcome to the beautiful, newly-revamped version of Midwest Cookin! Just because the recipes are ugly don't mean the site has to be hideous.

To celebrate the reboot, let's have some cake with Erna Perry!

Ingredients
1/2 c. butter
1/8 tsp. salt
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 c. cold water (you better make damn sure it's cold because that's the ingredient that makes this baby special)
1/2 c. cocoa
2 1/2 c. sifted cake flour (oooh, fancy! reminds me of Home Ec class)
1 c. cold water (yeah, more cold water - this ain't called Cold Water Cocoa Cake for nothin)
3 egg whites, beaten with
3/4 c. sugar
1 1/3 tsp. soda dissolved in small amount of boilin water (and what, pray tell, is a "small amount"? this is goin into the cake, so a little specificity would be appreciated....aw hell. I'm talkin to a brick wall here.)

Oven temp: 360 degrees (that's right - 360, not 350)

Pan size: 9x13-inch cake pan

How to:
Cream butter, salt, sugar, and vanilla. Blend and add cocoa and cold water blended. (huh?) Alternately blend cocoa mixture with flour and remainin cold water. (I feel an odd sense of deja vu) Fold in the beaten egg white-sugar mixture. Last add the soda mixture. Stir thoroughly. Bake 35 minutes.

This recipe has won several years at a county fair. (showoff. I wonder what you get if you "win several years"? calendars? time travel? does the island skip back to 1954?)