I remember the first time I had this cake at a friend’s birthday party during junior high school. The cake reminded me of my favorite ice cream, rocky road. I could have eaten the entire mud cake by myself—at thirteen years old, I remember thinking it was the best combination of ingredients I had ever tasted! Thank you, Mrs. Foster, for introducing me to one of my very favorite desserts.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the pan
- 0.125 cup plus 2 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 2½ cups sugar
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1½ cups whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 cups miniature marshmallows
- 1 cup chopped pecans, toasted (see Hint)
- ¾ recipe Chocolate Ganache (this page), made with semisweet
- chocolate
How to Make It
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter an 11 × 12 -inch glass baking dish, and dust with 2 tablespoons cocoa powder. .
- In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, baking soda, and salt.
- In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, whisk together the milk, butter, and the remaining ¾ cup cocoa until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth, 7 to 8 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the vanilla and whisk the mixture into the flour mixture.
- In a small bowl, whisk the eggs well. Stir them into the flour and milk mixture. Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with the chocolate chips.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 30 to 34 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle the marshmallows and toasted pecans evenly over the top of the cake. Pour the ganache over the marshmallows and pecans, being careful to keep them evenly spread across the top of the cake. Cover and refrigerate overnight before serving
