Mississippi Mud Brownies/Cake, from Gael

Mississippi Mud Brownies/Cake, from Gael

From the book "Southern Cakes." Gael made on 6-28-07 for book club and brought the rest into work where they vanished in seconds. Everyone loved this and folks asked for the recipe. One co-worker called it the "Michael Bay of brownies" (Michael Bay is a movie director who makes films with lots of explosions.) It's amazingly rich. Easy to make, easy to slice, which isn't always the case for gooey chocolate desserts. It's technically a cake, but it seemed more like brownies.

CAKE
1 cup butter, chunked
1/2 cup cocoa
4 eggs, beaten well
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped

FROSTING
16 ounces powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup milk or evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups miniature marshmallows

For cake: Heat oven to 350. Grease and flour 9 x 13 pan.

In medium saucepan, combine butter and cocoa and cook over medium heat, stirring until butter is melted, 3-4 minutes.

Stir in beaten eggs, vanilla, sugar, flour, salt and pecans. Beat until well combined and smooth and flour has disappeared.

Quickly pour into prepared pan and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes (mine was more like 35) until cake springs back when gently touched in center and is beginning to pull away from sides of pan.

While cake is baking: Make frosting. In medium bowl, combine powdered sugar and cocoa, mix well. Add melted butter, milk and vanilla. Beat everything well. Set aside until cake is done.

Remove cake from oven: Scatter marshmallows on top. Return to hot oven for 3 minutes (I would go up to 5, watching them) to soften marshmallow.

Place on wire rack or folded kitchen towel. Pour frosting over it. You may find some marshmallows end up kind of uncovered but that gives it kind of a rustic layered look and people don't mind. Let cool, cut into small pieces.