Give your cake...and eat it, too!

Sometime last year, I was on Instagram lamenting the fact that I was baking a cake for an event or a bake sale, and I wouldn't be able to taste-test it.  Oh, about eleventy-billion people chimed in suggesting that next time, I make a cupcake with a portion of the batter.

I am not the sharpest tool in the shed...that thought had never occurred to me.

{This is one well-used, well-loved muffin tin.}

It's my new rule now.  If I'm dropping a cake off someplace, I make a cupcake, too.  It serves two purposes: 1. to make sure it tastes ok.  2. I get to eat cake.

We'll be using instant espresso powder to make this Mississippi Mud Cake into a MOCHA Mississippi Mud Cake.  Look for it near the Sanka in your coffee aisle...or on Amazon.  It looks like this:

This Mocha Mississippi Mud Cake was actually heading to a funeral reception.  If you like to bake or cook, check into the funeral food ministry at your local church.  Food equals comfort, and it's such an easy way to give.  I think sometimes we get so wrapped up in trying to "give big" that we forget that the little acts of giving count for something, too.

Mocha Mississippi Mud Cake

for the cake:
1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon espresso powder
2 sticks salted butter, melted
1/2 cup dutch-process cocoa powder
4 eggs, room temperature
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 & 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour


for the topping:
1 (10 oz.) bag mini marshmallows
1/2 stick salted butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
1/2 cup dutch-process cocoa powder
4 cups powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9 x 13" pan. (If making a cupcake, line one muffin tin with a cupcake liner.)  Set aside.

In a small bowl, stir together the vanilla and espresso powder until combined.  Pour the vanilla/espresso mixture into a large bowl and add the melted butter, cocoa, and eggs.  Stir until well combined.

Stir in the sugar.  Add in the salt and flour and stir until no lumps remain.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan (and cupcake liner, if using).  Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  (Start checking the cupcake at about 18-20 minutes.)

Remove from the oven and place on a wire cooling rack.  Immediately scatter the marshmallows over the warm cake.  Set aside.

{Sing it with me: "I always feel like somebody's watching meeee...."}

Make the topping: in a medium saucepan, combine the butter, milk and espresso powder over medium heat until the mixture comes to a simmer.  Remove from the heat and whisk in the cocoa powder.  Return the pan to medium heat and whisk constantly until smooth.

Whisk in the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time.  Continue whisking and cooking until the mixture has come to a simmer.  Pour the hot topping evenly over the marshmallows.  Cool completely before serving.

The cake may be kept in the refrigerator for 1 week.

{Recipe adapted from Cake Ladies Mississippi Mud Cake}

Have (or give) your cake and eat it, too?  You bet!

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