Mississippi Mud Cake
Though this is not something that I remember Grandmother making, I found it while looking through her recipes. The rush of memories it brought back of her and Hollis convinced me that I had to include it. It was written in her hand on the back of a blank counter check on the Hollis bank. The recipe said that it was Jessie Scott’s.
I guess counterchecks are a symbol of my childhood memories of Hollis. I remember so well going to the grocery store (Machen’s) with Grandmother and she would take her groceries to the checker and ask for a check on the Hollis Bank. The checker would pull out a pad of counter checks, fill out the amount and hand it to Grandmother to sign. Even as a child I knew that this wasn’t the way it happened at home. And everybody did it! We would pull up to the drive-through at the Boomerang and my date would ask for a check on the Hollis bank to pay for our cherry limes.
You could still get flavored fountain drinks like cherry limes in Hollis. They would put whatever flavor you wanted in your drink. My friend Kathy devised a drink called a cherry, vanilla, lime Dr. Pepper which probably tasted a great deal like cough syrup. She probably paid for it with her mom’s counter check.
What wonderful memories of a time and place where everybody knew everyone else and trust was the rule rather than the exception. Now back to the cake.
Yield: 24 servings
9x13 cake pan, greased and floured
350 degrees
Cake Ingredients:
2 sticks butter
2 cup sugar
4 eggs
3 tbs cocoa
1 tbs baking powder
1 ½ cup flour
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup coconut
1 ½ cup pecans
1 jar marshmallow cream
Icing Ingredients:
1 box powdered sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1 stick butter, melted
½ cup milk
Cream butter and sugar, and add eggs. Add cocoa, baking powder, flour, and vanilla. Fold in coconut and pecans. Pour into pan and bake for 20 minutes or until the cake tests done. While hot spread the jar of marshmallow cream on the top. After cake has cooled mix icing ingredients and pour over cake.