Mississippi Mud Cake

I have to apologize to my other fellow Cake Slice Bakers for posting this challenge a day late. I had been thorough caught up with the recent Chinese New Year holidays and only managed to bake this cake last night.

Having read what had been posted in the Cake Slice Bakers forum, this cake would be extremely, extremely sweet if the original recipe was followed true and true. So having been forewarned, I went about reducing the recipe in half to a loaf size cake. In addition I also reduced the frosting and made only 1/3 of the recipe below. It was more than sufficient to frost the entire cake. In fact I wouldn't even call this a cake. To most of us who had baked it, the texture resembled more of a chocolate brownie - to be more precise a rocky road brownie. Even with the reduction of sugar which I had adapted I found this cake to be a tadd too sweet for my liking. Heh, I'm not a "sweet" girl, so you have to forgive me if I am to say that this is one recipe that I'm not bookmarking for future! One thing though, it was really, really easy to put together and I was done with this month's challenge in no time at all.



Mississippi Mud Cake
Recipe from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott
Makes one 13 x 9 inch sheet cake

For the Cake:

226g unsalted butter, cut into biug chunks
½ cup cocoa powder
4 eggs, beaten well
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups sugar (I reduced the sugar to 1 1/3 cups)
1½ cups all purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (I used roasted almonds instead)

For the Mississippi Mud Frosting:
(Suggest you reduce this by 1/3 as there is more than sufficient frosting to frosting this cake)

3¼ cups confectioners sugar (I reduced the sugar to 2 2/3 cups)
½ cup cocoa powder
113g unsalted butter, melted
½ cup milk or evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups mini marshmallows or 3 cups large marshmallows quartered

Method for the Cake:

1) Heat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 13x9 inch pan. In a medium saucepan combine the butter and cocoa powder and cook over medium heat, stirring now and then, until the butter is melted and the mixture is well blended, about 3 – 4 minutes. Stir in the beaten eggs, vanilla, sugar, flour, salt and pecans and beat until the batter is well combined and the flour has disappeared.

2) Quickly pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the cake springs back when touched gently in the centre and is beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan.

3) While the cake bakes, prepare the frosting so it is ready to pour over the hot cake.

Method for the Mud Frosting:

1) In a medium bowl combine the confectioners sugar and the cocoa powder and stir to mix well. Add the melted butter, milk and vanilla and beat everything together well. Set aside until the cake is done.

To Serve:

1) Remove the cake from the oven, scatter the marshmallows over the top and then return the cake to the hot oven for about 3 minutes to soften the marshmallows.

2) Place the cake, still in the pan, on a wire rack. Pour the frosting all over the marshmallow dotted cake and eat straight away or allow to cool to room temperature. Cut the cake into squares and serve.