Mississippi Mud Cake

Serves: 12 to 16

Hands-On Time: 1 hour and 0 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour and 0 minutes

Ingredients

Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

4 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows

1 cup Coca-Cola or other cola-style soda

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 large eggs, beaten

1 tablespoon vanilla

Icing

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/3 cup whole milk

4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

3 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

To make the cake: Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 9- by 13-inch baking dish with nonstick oil spray.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour and sugar, then whisk in the salt.

In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine 1 1/2 cups of the marshmallows with the Coca-Cola, butter, oil and cocoa powder until marshmallows and butter have melted and mixture is smooth. Add the marshmallow mixture to flour mixture and whisk to combine.

In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and baking soda. Stir into the batter. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the prepared pan. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Top with the remaining 3 cups of marshmallows, return to the oven and bake just until the marshmallows melt, about 5 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan while you make the icing.

To make the icing: In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the milk and cocoa powder, and remove from the heat. Whisk in the powdered sugar, salt and vanilla. While still warm, drizzle over the cake until all icing.

Serve warm or let cool to room temperature. The cake will keep for 3 days at room temperature.

About the recipe

A take on the gooier and much messier Mississippi mud pie, this mud cake is an easy chocolate sheet cake topped with marshmallows and a loose chocolate icing. We decided to leave out the optional pecans so we don’t veer too far into rocky road territory. Any chocolate cake recipe will work as a base, but we like a Coca-Cola cake for its ease and crossover ingredients. And Coca-Cola is delicious, after all!