Mississippi Mud Cake

This is really my all time favorite cake. Every year for my birthday, I still ask Mom to make it for me. I have no idea what the caloric intake on this is, but I like the sound of 27 calories per slice. ;)

My favorite cookbook that my Mom gave me for Christmas one year. Go Mom!

Start off with two sticks of margarine (or butter, if you prefer).

Cut it up into cubes so you can melt it in the microwave.

While the butter is melting, get four eggs ready. We buy ours in a carton for health/heart reasons belonging to the husband. As many times as my Mom or I have made this cake, I can't taste the difference between real eggs and the. Ummm. Not-so-real eggs. Pour these into a mixing bowl with the melted butter.

Add one and a half cups of granulated sugar.

Scoop out a half cup of cocoa.
And pour that into bowl to mix up until it gets pretty thick. Don't forget to add a teaspoon of vanilla.

Slowly add one and a half cups flour, until all ingredients are mixed in. Scrape the sides of the bowl and then mix another minute. Or two. I'm ok seeing little chunks of cocoa, but feel free to mix longer if that bothers you. Knock yourself out and sift the cocoa first, if you want to be really crazy.

This is a bowl that I could happily sit down and eat with a spoon until it was gone. To save myself from caving, I try to tell others in advance that I'm making this cake as my form of accountability so I have to follow through on putting it in the oven.

Grease a 9x13 pan. My preference is olive oil PAM spray, but you could use butter or margarine or (gasp) lard/crisco. Anything to prevent the cake from sticking to the pan.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Don't rely on the toothpick test to tell you when this cake is done. It will come out a little gooey or with bits of fudgy cake sticking to it. Trust me, the cake will continue baking a little longer after you take it out of the oven and it really is the BEST when it's more fudgy than completely baked and crumbly like a normal cake.

While the cake is baking, you have time for a little kitchen clean-up of all the empties, including the mixing bowl & beater because you will have licked them clean at this point.

Sift a pound of powdered sugar to get it REALLY fine and powdery.

Melt one stick of butter/margarine and add one third cup of cocoa, one teaspoon of vanilla and six tablespoons of milk.

Mix it up good, slowly adding in the powdered sugar so you don't get a humongous cloud of powdered sugar dust flying up into your face. If you choose to add it all at once and turn the mixer on high, the aforementioned possibility may occur. Not that I speak from experience. Let's move on, shall we?

I used too small of a pan because mine is....ahem....missing. Mom denies any responsibility. As a result, the cake is higher inside this smaller pan, which unfortunately leaves less room for the icing layers.

Once the cake is out of the oven and has five minutes to cool a little, open up a small jar of marshmallow cream and pop it in the oven for a minute or two.

You want the marshmallow cream to warm and expand so it starts rising above the top of the jar, but not down the sides.

Then spoon the marshmallow cream onto the cake.

Spread the marshmallow cream evenly over the cake. If it cools too quickly or seems to be tearing the cake as you spread, you can zap the jar in the microwave again as you add more.

Give the icing one last mixeroo to freshen it up a bit since it has likely formed a bit of a skin on top.

Pour half the icing on top of the marshmallow cream and gently spread that around so the marshmallow is covered, but can be seen through the chocolate icing.

You may add more icing if necessary, but please remember this is a Mississippi Mud Cake and not a Death by Chocolate dessert. There is always extra icing at the end.

Always.

Can be served warm, but is equally as delicious if refrigerated (think cold fudge). Now you can lick the spatula, bowl and beaters from your mixer.

Enjoy!