Name: Microwave Mug Cake
Prep time: 8 min
Cook time: 2 min
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: ¼ Cup All-Purpose Flour; ¼ Cup Granulated Sugar; 4 Tbsp Cocoa Powder; ¼ Tsp Baking Soda; ⅛ Tsp Salt; 3 Tbsp Milk; 2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil; 1 Tbsp Water; ½ Tsp Vanilla Extract

This rich, gooey chocolate cake take minutes to cook and melts in the mouth from the delicious flavor

Total Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Week five without a kitchen and I am beginning to lose my mind. My sweet tooth is going absolutely crazy, so I thought it was time to try out a microwave mug cake. It seemed like the perfect treat to make to satisfy my craving for sweets. And it’s quick and easy to make, although you do need some utensils for measuring. But this cake is full of chocolatey goodness, and it hits the spot for anyone craving cake but who doesn’t want to make a whole cake.

Check out the Make section of MCG for more fun recipes like desserts and savory dishes.

Ingredients

The ingredients needed for mug cake are simple. It’s the classic cake ingredients: flour, sugar, cocoa power, baking soda, salt, milk, oil, water, and vanilla extract! Sounds like a classic chocolate cake to me.

Process

01

Mixing the Dry Ingredients

The first step of the process is to mix all the dry ingredients together. I decided to do this in the mug so that I would only really use one dish. Less dishes means less mess, right? (I really hope so). When I was stirring all of the dry ingredients into the mug, I did my very best not to spill any out. I used a gentler hand than I normally do because I didn’t want to get powder everywhere (but I still manages to spill a very small amount).

02

Adding the Wet Ingredients

Next, I created a well in the center of my dry ingredients. This is a home I like to make for the wet ingredient to help them get into the center and fully absorb the dry ingredients. The mug cake really feels like there is only two steps because I put all the wet ingredients in at once! Again, I gently stirred and did my absolutely best not to make a mess of the area.

03

Baking… Er… Microwaving?

The last step is the cook the cake in the microwave after it’s been thoroughly mixed. This is a very quick bake, so I only had it in the microwave for about two minutes. And then all that’s left to do is enjoy the warm chocolatey goodness!!

Reflections

Oh, dear lord this cake. There were quite a few surprises that I came across when baking. I was not expecting to see the cake try to explode upward out of the mug as it rapidly baked. Looking back, I’m not sure why I was surprised. Explosion of the food seems natural for a microwave. This cake was packed with chocolate flavor and was extremely moist. And it made less than I anticipate which is great because I don’t need that much sugar considering everything else I eat… 10/10. Would absolutely make again because it was gone within minutes.

Lessons

Oil in Baking

As I was making this, I began to wonder… why use oil in baking? Oil was always an ingredient on those ready-made cake boxes, so I was curious what importance it has on cakes. Oil is a liquid fat, so it takes on a similar role to butter when being cooked. But butter is solid fat (since it’s solid at room temperature). In baking, oil allows for a moister and more tender cake. It also brings less flavor to the party so it can allow for other flavors to shine.