Kitchen Klutz: 'Mandy-Anne' can cook - sorta

**Check back Monday for this recipe

By Michèle “Mandy-Anne” De Meglio

Hey y’all. The Kitchen Klutz has moved into a trailer park.

This week, I decided to rustle up a Southern dessert called chocolate beer cake — and adopt a “My Name Is Earl” persona.

So in my gray jersey bathrobe, bright dangly earrings, cherry red lipstick and redneck rollers in my hair, I was ready to bake. Once I took a swig of my 24-ounce can of Budweiser, that is! Woo hoo!

With a quick check to make sure my rollers didn’t slip (heck, I wanted some curls after all this!), I grabbed my brewski and started sifting cake flour, salt and baking powder. Simple enough.

Then I had to crack two eggs and separate the yolks from the whites. See where this is going?

On my first shot, I tried to keep the yolk in the shell and dump the white into a bowl but the yolk took a dive too. Dang!

My buddy Audrey separated the other egg since it was the last one in the fridge. I haven’t made it to Winn-Dixie to buy some more yet!

With my egg yolks in the mixing bowl with the rest of the batter, I added the pièce de résistance (check out my fancy words!) — a cup of Bud. Yee-haw!

After creaming the sugar and butter and adding two egg whites, my batter was ready for the oven.

While the cake was baking, I took a breather on my floral lawn chair and put my half-empty Bud on a stack of tires.

Verdict: Chocolate beer cake is more like bread. Chocolate bread with a strong taste of suds.

It was great coated with chocolate frosting but fell flat on its own.

My hair fell flat too. Literally. After two hours in rollers, it was still stick-straight. Damn, y’all.

I may have been a true redneck when making my beer cake but, no, I didn’t crush the Bud can on my skull.

Kitchen Klutz follows 20-something Michèle De Meglio as she burns casseroles and her fingers, all in hope of trading frozen dinners for home cooking.