my family's cake

I've been meaning to post this recipe for ages now. The story of its origin gets a little blurry, but my understanding is that my great-grandmother came up with this during the Depression as a way of not wasting spoiled milk. It seems a little strange to make an entire cake to avoid throwing out a little milk, but it's also the kind of crazy "logic" my family has been known to practice.

At any rate, this makes an excellent cake. It's a very mild flavor, with a dense texture. The only problem is I can't get the damn thing to come out solid enough--assuming I can get the cake out of the pan without it tearing in half, it often crumbles while I'm frosting it, and I make the frosting nice & fluffy just to avoid that. So I don't know. Any advice would be welcome.

I've also included my favorite frosting recipe, which is incredibly simple, but I love the outcome. You may remember it from the chai frosting experiments of yore. It came from here originally.

Depression-era sour milk cake
1 cup boiling water
2 squares bitter chocolate
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
2 eggs (separated, but you do use both parts)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sour milk (if not available, use 1 tablespoon vinegar & fill to 1 cup w/ milk)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Stir chocolate into boiling water until dissolved, set aside.
Combine flour, salt, baking powder - set aside.
Cream shortening, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla.
Add dry ingredients and sour milk in alternating parts.
Add baking soda to chocolate (must wait until cooled), stir.
Blend chocolate in to batter.
Beat egg whites, fold in to batter.
Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, two round cake pans.

Buttercream frosting
1 lb. confectioners' sugar
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 tbsp. milk

Combine. Add more milk until you're happy with the outcome.