Cooking with Amelia Bedelia...
My new friend moon_happy posted a chocolate-cake-in-a-coffee-mug recipe that I've been seeing around the internet. Since she included a nice step-by-step set of instructions with it, I decided to try it out.
3 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake
1 Coffee mug
4 tablespoons flour (plain flour, not self-rising)
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
small splash of vanilla
Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly (not easy, but get those dry bits from the bottom.) Pour in the milk and oil and mix well (the mixing gets much easier here.) Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla and mix again. Put mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to share)
Simple and easy, yes? You would think so.
To begin with, I'm not sure what kind of flour was involved. I typically buy white for baking projects, except when I'm going to make bread - then I buy bread flour. I am also prone to experimenting with different types and I know there are some floating around in the kitchen. In jars which are not marked. Oops.
But, in went the flour. And the sugar. And something that I think was baking cocoa - although I cannot be sure because the label was in German. It was either baking cocoa, or hot cocoa mix. It was brown and smelled chocolatey, so I added it.
I had a hard time finding the eggs but eventually I did locate one. I had bought some a while ago (can't remember why) and the carton (which was full.... guess I didn't need eggs) was in the back of the fridge behind some organic guacamole. I should mention at this point that I didn't actually read the nice directions included in the recipe, so in went the egg and the oil.... and I hit another snag.
I don't drink milk, so I don't buy milk. I do, however, have lite chocolate soy milk on hand at any given time. Are you supposed to be able to bake with soy milk? I'm not sure. But how bad can it be to put chocolate soy milk into something that's supposed to be chocolate cake? I put it in.
I don't happen to have any chocolate chips, so I didn't put those in. But I felt compelled to add something of the chip persuasion, and I had some toffee chips from a batch of cookies, so in they went. Number one rule of baking: everything's better with toffee chips. (Actually that might be more of a theory of baking because I've not exactly proven it yet. Oh well.)
Another snag: how much is a splash of vanilla? I actually have some measuring spoons for 'pinch' and 'dash' but I think the kinetic nature of the splash indicates an inherent resistance to measuring implements. So I tipped some in and tried to avoid my predilection toward excess (most recently seen during the NYE "rum drink" fiasco.)
Then I stirred it all up, which was fairly uneventful. Upon completion of stirring, I put the entire thing into the microwave and off it went for a 3 minute ride.
Much to my delight, the cake-like substance DID rise up over the top of the cup, but did NOT pour over the sides and make a mess. (I know you said that moon_happy but i'm one of those experiential learners.) I watched.
Ding! Cake is done! And it actually looked sort of cakey! I waited about a nanosecond for it to cool before dumping it in a bowl and returning to my desk for further cooling and taste test.
And guess what? It was great! Actually quite palatable! I think it would be fabulous with ice cream (not that I really eat ice cream.... not that I really eat chocolate cake for that matter but a kitchen-science experiment is never to be missed.)I did not notice any terrible adverse effects due to my ingredient substituting. Yay for chocolate soy milk! Yay for toffee chips! Yay for eggs of unknown provenance! It worked!
So I highly recommend this recipe. It seems you can put in whatever you have around and the magical microwave will turn it into chocolate cake. I'm a little sad that I've been on this earth 28 years and this is the first time I've made chocolate cake in a coffee mug in the microwave. You must all try it - immediately, if not sooner.
3 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake
1 Coffee mug
4 tablespoons flour (plain flour, not self-rising)
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
small splash of vanilla
Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly (not easy, but get those dry bits from the bottom.) Pour in the milk and oil and mix well (the mixing gets much easier here.) Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla and mix again. Put mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to share)
Simple and easy, yes? You would think so.
To begin with, I'm not sure what kind of flour was involved. I typically buy white for baking projects, except when I'm going to make bread - then I buy bread flour. I am also prone to experimenting with different types and I know there are some floating around in the kitchen. In jars which are not marked. Oops.
But, in went the flour. And the sugar. And something that I think was baking cocoa - although I cannot be sure because the label was in German. It was either baking cocoa, or hot cocoa mix. It was brown and smelled chocolatey, so I added it.
I had a hard time finding the eggs but eventually I did locate one. I had bought some a while ago (can't remember why) and the carton (which was full.... guess I didn't need eggs) was in the back of the fridge behind some organic guacamole. I should mention at this point that I didn't actually read the nice directions included in the recipe, so in went the egg and the oil.... and I hit another snag.
I don't drink milk, so I don't buy milk. I do, however, have lite chocolate soy milk on hand at any given time. Are you supposed to be able to bake with soy milk? I'm not sure. But how bad can it be to put chocolate soy milk into something that's supposed to be chocolate cake? I put it in.
I don't happen to have any chocolate chips, so I didn't put those in. But I felt compelled to add something of the chip persuasion, and I had some toffee chips from a batch of cookies, so in they went. Number one rule of baking: everything's better with toffee chips. (Actually that might be more of a theory of baking because I've not exactly proven it yet. Oh well.)
Another snag: how much is a splash of vanilla? I actually have some measuring spoons for 'pinch' and 'dash' but I think the kinetic nature of the splash indicates an inherent resistance to measuring implements. So I tipped some in and tried to avoid my predilection toward excess (most recently seen during the NYE "rum drink" fiasco.)
Then I stirred it all up, which was fairly uneventful. Upon completion of stirring, I put the entire thing into the microwave and off it went for a 3 minute ride.
Much to my delight, the cake-like substance DID rise up over the top of the cup, but did NOT pour over the sides and make a mess. (I know you said that moon_happy but i'm one of those experiential learners.) I watched.
Ding! Cake is done! And it actually looked sort of cakey! I waited about a nanosecond for it to cool before dumping it in a bowl and returning to my desk for further cooling and taste test.
And guess what? It was great! Actually quite palatable! I think it would be fabulous with ice cream (not that I really eat ice cream.... not that I really eat chocolate cake for that matter but a kitchen-science experiment is never to be missed.)I did not notice any terrible adverse effects due to my ingredient substituting. Yay for chocolate soy milk! Yay for toffee chips! Yay for eggs of unknown provenance! It worked!
So I highly recommend this recipe. It seems you can put in whatever you have around and the magical microwave will turn it into chocolate cake. I'm a little sad that I've been on this earth 28 years and this is the first time I've made chocolate cake in a coffee mug in the microwave. You must all try it - immediately, if not sooner.