Beverly Jenkins | Mississippi Mud Recipe

When my children were young, one of the things they looked forward to most whenever I finished a book was my firing up the mixer. The cookies, cakes, pies and yeast breads they’d been dreaming about while I was in the cave trying to meet my deadline could now become reality. Did they want peach cobbler, or donuts or oatmeal cookies stuffed with raisins nuts and chocolate chips? They each got to pick and it became one our family traditions. My husband, who’d also been patiently waiting, got to pick, too but his choice rarely had anything to do with the kitchen – although one time we did – well, never mind. :)

Anyway, where was I? Many of the themes in the Blessings series revolve around family and tradition. Whether it’s the old picture albums kept by town matriarch Tamar July, the August First parade put on by the kids in book 1, BRING ON THE BLESSINGS, or the colorful stories told about the July’s train robbing outlaw ancestors. Tradition is important and one of the more flavorful traditions in the Jenkins household is Mississippi Mud. The recipe was passed to me by my husband’s aunt. Because it is so decadent I make it only once a year at Christmas time, but you can make it anytime you wish and hopefully it will become a tradition for your family as well.

Cake

2 C sugar

1 ½ c. flour

1/3 c cocoa

1 c. margarine or butter

¼ t. salt

4 eggs

½ pkg. 10 oz. marshmallows – the little ones

1 c nuts – chopped

1 t. vanilla.

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Sift together flour, cocoa and salt. Add dry ingredients to butter, sugar and egg mixture. Mix well. Add nuts and vanilla. Pour into 13x9 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 mins. Remove from oven and cover surface of still hot cake with one layer of marshmallows ( you won’t need the whole 10oz bag). Place cake back into the 350 degree oven and bake another 10 mins, or until the marshmallows melt and become lightly tanned in color.

Icing

1 - 1 lb. box confectioners’ sugar

1/3 c. milk

1 t. vanilla

1/3 c. cocoa. 1 c. chopped nuts

1 c. margarine - melted

Sift sugar and cocoa and mix with melted margarine. Add milk, vanilla. Mix well and add nuts. Spread over cooled cake. Cover and let sit overnight so that cake will firm up. Store left over pieces in fridge.

About FOR YOUR LOVE (Blessings series)

NAACP nominee and bestselling author Beverly Jenkins returns to Henry Adams, Kansas—an unforgettable place that anyone would want to call home—with a story of family, friends, and the powerful forces from our past that can irrevocably shape our future.

Mayor Trent July and his wife Lily are enjoying life as newlyweds and embracing the challenges and joys that come with being foster parents to two wonderful boys. But being a foster father has inevitably forced him to think about his own birth mother. Raised by his grandmother Tamar—and in many ways the good people of Henry Adams—Trent was blessed with a childhood full of love.

But now he can’t help wondering what happened to the scared teenage girl who handed him over to Tamar. And questions that he’s never voiced are now begging to be answered: Who was she? Is she still alive? Why didn’t she want him?

Trent has always believed no good comes from dwelling on the past, especially when you have a loving family, a strong community, and folks who depend on him. But when the past comes to Henry Adams and Trent has no choice but to face it—and the woman who left him behind. The truth will shake his very being and everything he thought he knew about life, love, and the bonds that hold families together…yet can also tear them apart.

About Beverly Jenkins

Beverly Jenkins is an African-American historical romance writer. She and her family live in southeastern Michigan. Born in Detroit, she graduated from Cass Technical High School and attended Michigan State University where she majored in Journalism and English Literature.