Share a Spoon - Mississippi Mud Cake

 

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Share A Spoon
CCCCCCCCCAAAAAAAKKKKKKEEEEE
is there anything better?

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This week's theme is brought to you by my lovely bloggy and Twitter friends @amberella87, @kimslittlelife and @TheBlueZoo.  Apparently cake is pretty popular, or you Smackers are just a crazy bunch of baking machines!
I used to see myself as just a cook and not a baker.  I mean I could bake, but there's all that measuring and perfection and yada yada yada.  I thought there was too much precision involved and I am more of a fly by the seat of my pants kinda gal.  I didn't have the patience for baking, or so I thought.
However, through the course of trial and error I have learned that mistakes are o.k.  Sometimes mistakes are even better than the original idea.  I started out experimenting in the savory kitchen.  I decided if it's a train wreck I will just throw it out and start over.  There's always take out in a pinch aka a travesty of epic proportions.  Besides, this is my kitchen.  Who says you have to follow a recipe?  
Well, that experimenting bled into baking.  At first it was more of a challenge to see if I could improve recipes that were sweet, the way I did changing things up on classic dishes.  I had learned at that point to start measuring or approximating for my savory recipes to share with others.  Recipe writing requires measurements.  So when I started writing my own baking recipes I was already in the habit of approximating measuring.  

When I decided to make this cake I struggled.  Living in the South, I have had Mississippi Mud Cake several times over and recipe after recipe.  My favorite recipe came from a lady that used to work with my mom.  She made the best Mississippi Mud Cake I had ever tasted.  She shared her recipe, but when others made it, it just wasn't as good.  What's even weirder than that?  The woman couldn't cook savory dishes to save her life, but she was a Master Baking Goddess.
Rather than make her recipe and have it fail miserably like so many others before me, I decided I would make my own.  I worked this recipe over and over until it came out the way I wanted it.  My recipe is different than Naomi's but it's just as tasty in my not so humble opinion.

Brandee's Mississippi Mud Cake

2 sticks butter softened

1 1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 cup flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup walnuts (I use the ice cream nut topping. It's chopped really fine, works really well!)

1 jar Jet Puff Marshmallow fluff

2 handfuls of mini marshmallows

In a large bowl sift together flour, cocoa and baking powder. Stir in salt. Set aside. Cream together butter and sugars. Add the extracts. Add eggs one at a time. Slowly incorporate the flour/cocoa mixture. Fold in the nuts.

Spread batter into a greased 13x9x2 baking pan. Cook for 35 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven. (Or until the cake is set.) 

Remove from the oven and let cool until for ten minutes. Spread one small container of marshmallow fluff over the cake and sprinkle 2 handfuls of mini marshmallows evenly over the cake (see what I mean about approximating?). 

Return the cake to the oven and bake for 10 minutes (or until the marshmallow melts and toasts lightly.

Let cake cool completely.

Frosting:

1 stick butter softened to room temperature

3 cups of powdered sugar

1/3 cup of cocoa

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1 cup chopped pecans

Cream butter, sugar, cocoa, vanilla and milk together. Beat until smooth and creamy. Takes a few minutes. Stir in chopped pecans. Top the cooled cake with the frosting.

This cake is simply put SINFUL.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!  Now, it's your turn.  Share your favorite cake recipe this week!  Link up below!
Happy Eating Smackers!  Leave me some love and let me know what you want to see in the coming weeks on Share a Spoon.  (You don't have to participate in order to pick a theme.  If you are looking for recipes just let me know and I will do my best to help you!)  We're coming up on our 1 Year Anniversary and I am super excited about that!

Wordless Wednesday - Oh Snap!

I have a confession.  I'm obsessed with taking photos lately.  I got this cool new camera for Christmas.  It's not a big fancy camera with all the lens attachments. It's a Nikon Coolpix.  The one you see Ashton Kutcher hawking in commercials.  The camera that does night photos and motion.  Not exactly the camera that real photographers get giddy over, but me and my coolpix, we'z tight yo!


So....my obsession.  Every time I venture outside these days I have this trusty little wonder with me.  We have all sorts of new birds, and bugs, and flowers blooming because it's almost Summer here in Florida.  Ok...maybe it's still Spring.  It was in the 60s all day today.  Either way, everything is all anew and begging to be photographed.


These are some of my favorite shots from last week.

This is a female Luna Moth that was on my kitchen window.

This is a Leopard Moth we found on the deck.

This is a side shot of the same Leopard Moth.  Cool huh?

Egg shells left in a Blue Bird nest in a bird house in our yard.

The moths in these pictures are huge.  They look more like butterflies than moths in person.  The picture of the nest is in a bird house that my dad made for me.  He collects old fencing and makes rustic little bird houses out of the dilapidated fences.  A piece of the roofing had fallen off due to weathering.  At first I was afraid that an animal might have pulled it away and eaten the eggs.  However, I saw the family of blue birds had moved to another bird house so I am certain those little birds hatched which made my heart happy!  

Happy Wednesday Smackers!  Join me tomorrow for Share a Spoon CAKES!

I don't...do you?

So, I am sitting here watching The Talk on CBS, as I do most afternoons.  Well, I half watch while I am doing other things.  The girls are chatting about Julie Chen being perfect, blah, blah, blah.  Julie relays a cute story about a "fight" she had with her husband.  Silly story and it wasn't a real "fight", but more a funny story about him giving her material for the show.


That's when Leah Remini pipes up and says she had a real fight with Angelo (Remini's husband).  Jenny McCarthy tweeted something about having a pimple, was it a turn off or some such nonsense.  Angelo replied "Not if you're naked", this according to Remini.  She was LIVID.  Like crazy mad.  How inappropriate for him to say something like that to a "girl" friend of hers.


REALLY???  I mean REALLY???????????


I sat and thought about the conversation that they just had.  Chen has said she and her husband don't fight, much to the chagrin of the other ladies.  You know, after all, she is "prefect".  That was the gist of the conversation.  I thought, that isn't that unnatural.  I mean, BDC and I don't fight.  We really don't.  Not ever.  Nine years of marriage and we are still that compatible. 


That is not to say we don't disagree on things.  We do, occasionally, but we don't fight over them.


I know so many women though that would have been just as inflamed and upset if their husbands had made similar comments as Remini's did.  I don't get it though.  Why?  It's such a guy thing to say.  It's also funny.  I mean, it's funny right?

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I think it's deeper than that though.  These are the same women who get upset if their fiancées go to a strip club for their bachelor parties.  These are the same women who freak out if their husbands watch a porno.  These are the same women who check their husbands wallets.  Break into their phones and monitor text messages, emails, FB, etc.


So my question Smackers is this, is it their insecurity that makes them get so mad, crazy jealous and ridiculous?  Are you one of these people?  Do you get crazed over these things?  


I want to understand.  Help me with this one, because I just don't get it.