Mississippi Mud Cake

This recipe now goes into my "favorite" file. This is an absolutely delicious cake. It's very casual and would be great for a barbeque or a potluck. It's easy and has no fancy ingredients. It's not the most attractive cake but it certainly looks scrumptious! It comes from a compilation of 2 recipes in my "Southern Cakes" book. If you are into cakes, especially layer cakes, than you need to purchase this book. It's small but sweet and has some really traditional but exciting recipes. I love this book and am going to try making just about everything in it. I highly recommend this Mississippi Mud cake. I bet you will love it. It's quite easy to overbake the chocolate cake in this recipe so I removed mine from the oven slightly before I thought it was done. Besides, you have to scatter the marshmallows over the hot cake and return it to the oven for 3 more minutes to soften the marshmallows which continues to bake the cake a little more. So remove it a bit early. It will continue to bake anyway from the residual heat.

I think I will go have another piece before bed! Yummy!

Have you ever seen this book? I LOVE this book. So many beautiful layer cakes in here! The theme of this book totally captures what I'm about (except I'm not from the south). I've made about 5 or 6 recipes out of this book and they have all been lovely.

I used the "topping" part of this recipe only. The chocolate icing with the marshmallow part. There is a chocolate cake recipe on the following page which I used for the cake part.

Boiling water is poured over cocoa powder (I also added a small amount of instant coffee to this mixture).

Out of the oven and cooling so the chocolate will set.

Extremely moist!

The recipe in the book uses miniature marshmallows but all I had were the large ones so I cut them into quarters.

This cake turned out better than I thought it would. It exceeded my expectations. Absolutely decadent & delicious! I will definitely make this again.

Celestial Chocolate Cake (this is supposed to be a triple layer cake but I used this recipe for my 13x9 inch Mississippi Mud cake)
Adapted from Southern Cakes

1 cup cocoa

2 cups boiling water

2 3/4 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, plus additional for greasing pans

2 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 eggs

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans. (I used a 13x9 inch pan)

2. Place the cocoa in a small mixing bowl and pour 2 cups boiling water over it. Stir well with a fork until smooth, and set aside to cool.

3. Put the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and stir with a fork to mix well. Set aside.

4. With a mixer, beat the butter and sugar at high speed until well combined. Add the vanilla and then the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each until the mixture is smooth and light.

5. Add the flour mixture in four batches, beating after each addition only until the flour disappears. Alternate with the cocoa mixture in three batches, beating after each just enough to combine everything into a smooth, luscious batter, stopping once or twice to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

6. Divide the batter among the three cake pans. Bake until the cakes spring back when touched lightly in the center and are beginning to pull away from the sides of the pans, 25 to 30 minutes.

7. Place the cake pans on wire racks and cool the cake layers for 10 minutes. Then gently turn them out onto wire racks to cool completely, top side up.


Mississippi Mud Frosting:

One 16-ounce box (about 3 2/3 cups) confectioners’ sugar
½ cup cocoa
½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted
½ cup milk or evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups mini-marshmallows, or 3 cups marshmallows, quartered

Prepare the frosting while the cake bakes; so that you will be ready to poor it over the hot cake. In a medium bowl, combine the confectioners’ sugar and the cocoa, and stir to mix them well. Add the melted butter, milk and vanilla, and use a large spoon or mixer at low speed to beat everything together well. Set aside until the cake is done.

Remove the cake from the oven, scatter the marshmallows over the top, and return the cake to the hot oven form about 3 minutes, to soften the marshmallows.

Place the cake, still in the pan, on a wire rack or a folded kitchen towel. Pour the frosting all over the marshmallow-dotted cake, and cool to room temperature. Cut into small squares and serve.