I have loved reading everyone's comments, and have a story of my own: Many years ago, as my sister's 18th birthday approached, she began pestering our mother to make her a Mississippi Mud Cake. My mother scoured her cookbooks and asked all of her friends trying to find a recipe. MS Mud Cake, if you didn't know, is a heavenly confection with chocolate, nuts, and marshmallows baked throughout a lovely chocolatey cake. Well, during this time frame, our mother worked a full-time job and was quite often tired in the evenings and used the weekends for laundry and housework, so I'm sure all of this came into play when asked to provide a dessert she had never even heard of, much less made before! Now this particular recipe called for miniature marshmallows to be distributed over the top of the batter before baking. And she probably glanced through the recipe to make sure she had all of the ingredients. We all do that, right? The time comes to sprinkle said miniature marshmallows over the top, and...where are the minis? We always have minis! Oh well, here's a bag of regular marshmallows. Same thing, right? NOPE. Those suckers puffed up and overflowed the pan, making a huge glom on the bottom of the oven that proceeded to smoke and burn! All this with a huge gathering of extended family there to celebrate the birthday. My sister was the first one to peek into the oven. Not sure why there was smoke streaming from the oven (with her much-awaited cake inside), she jerked open the oven door to snatch out the cake pan, and streamed giant globs of marshmallow all over the kitchen floor as she looked for a place to set the cake down, becoming so flustered all she could do was twirl around and around going "Oh! Oh! Oh!" (She's not very good in a crisis situation.) Needless to say, we all gamely tried the cake after the excitement had died down, only the marshmallows had hardened into a tooth-shattering slab. So it was ice cream only that year for the party. Aah, good times!

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