Adventures in Food
Chocolate cake in 3 minutes
My mom sent me this recipe from the newspaper years ago. But I didn’t make it. The recipe was marked “dangerous chocolate mug cake.” The danger was in the ease of making a chocolate cake in 5 minutes–2 minutes for throwing together the ingredients (all right into the mug) and another 3 for baking.
There’s a couple of reasons I held out making this recipe. The first? I didn’t think it would work. I mean, mixing up a chocolate cake in a coffee mug? And even if it did work I figured it would be tasteless, or at best, grainy.
The second reason: What if it was good? Being able to put a individual-sized piece of cake together so quickly is downright dangerous for your waistline.
But that torn piece of newspaper had been nagging at me, so I decided to give it a try. Result: it’s good. I don’t know if I’m happy or disappointed about that. You really do put all the ingredients together in the order of the recipe and cook for 3 minutes to turn out a moist piece of chocolate cake. You can serve the cake in the mug or turn it out onto a plate.
I’ve now made the chocolate mug a few times (trying to keep myself from making it too often) and let me give you a few hints.
- The cake turns out better if you mix the ingredients in the mug. When I mixed it in a separate bowl and then placed it in the mug, the top of the cake didn’t end up round, it was more flat. Plus, you can avoid cleaning up another bowl by just using the mug.
- I’m an almond extract fan so whether you choose almond extract or vanilla you do need a bit of a flavor boost in the cake.
- Okay, this one is a bit obvious, but I’m always anxious for a bite of cake: give it at least a couple minutes to cool before you eat it.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 regular-sized coffee cup
¼ cup flour
½ cup sugar
2 Tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 Tablespoons milk
3 Tablespoons oil
¼ teaspoon almond extract
3 Tablespoons chocolate chips
1 Tablespoon nuts (opt)
Directions
- Add all of the dry ingredients to the mug and stir.
- Add the egg and mix.
- Pour in the milk, oil and extract.
- Mix the chocolate chips and nuts (if using) into the batter.
- Place the mug on a small plate.
- Bake in the microwave for 3 minutes on high.
- Note: The batter will rise above the top of the mug. Not to worry, the batter shouldn’t overflow.
- Allow the cake to cool for a couple minutes before eating.
This is the perfect recipe to make while thumbing through a few real-life Valentine’s stories available at Parents.com. I’ve been looking through the site as part of the Motherboard team. Once a week, I’ll be posting about the exciting things not to miss on the their site, and their affiliates.
What’s your favorite Valentine’s Day sweet? As you’ve probably gathered, mine is anything with dark chocolate.
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about 2 years ago
I’ve made this sort of cake. Not all the time, but as an “I’m desperate, I need cake, I need it now” sort of gap filler, it works pretty well. I bet it is even better with almond extract.
about 2 years ago
This is dangerously easy. Hard to believe you can make a cake so quickly…so hard, in fact, that I have to put it to the test!
about 2 years ago
I wonder what adjustments — so as not to crack the mug perhaps — would be needed to make this cake in a conventional oven. or best to just make it in a pan?
about 2 years ago
I wondered the same thing because then you could put a whole batch of mugs/cake in the oven. My guess (and I’m tempted to try this) is that you could cook this in an oven-safe mug for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees. I’m thinking you could also put the batter in individual muffin tins or ramekins. The batter would probably make for three mini-cakes then.
about 2 years ago
Fantastic!
Is this really a family dessert….
Or is this just the equivalent of dessert you need when you don’t have a quart of ice cream to sooth an emotional problem? Not a family dessert, just a Me-me-me!!
about 2 years ago
Wow, I like this! A must try for sure. Can it be baked instead of microwaved? (I know that would make it more than 3 minutes, but I don’t have a microwave)….
about 2 years ago
So, I found this post today and was going to make chocolate mousse for dessert. I am out of cream so I thought I’d try this. My kitchen now smells like almond! I am waiting for it to cool a bit but I only have tall mugs so it doesn’t look as nice.
It tastes okay, but it’s kind of wet around the outside. All in al, it’s a little fun! I think the kids might get a kick out of it.
I must say that adding all that sugar and oil made my heart lurch a bit but this is what we’ll have tonight for a quick dessert! Thanks for sharing it.
about 2 years ago
I’m glad you gave it a try. I’m not sure why it was wet around the edges. Did you stir it really well? If the mug is taller, I’m wondering if maybe all of the flour didn’t get mixed in. Huh, I think I better do a little chocolate cake research…
about 2 years ago
Mine was wet around the edges at first too. I put it back in the microwave for another 90 seconds and that helped. (I’m used to adding more time to microwave recipes; my microwave is not that powerful.)
I had to mix and “bake” this in a 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup. I don’t know how you can mix all that batter in a regular mug — mine aren’t that big.
I don’t see any advantage to baking this in a real oven instead of microwaving. It’s not so delicious that you’d want to spend that much time on it — just make brownies (from scratch or mix) if you have 30 minutes to spare for baking.
Also, definitely not company-worthy dessert. It’s more of a novelty than a delicacy.
about 2 years ago
Actually, I the directions didn’t say to mix once you add the liquids – but I did anyway…maybe just not enough. I took it out of the mug and dusted w/powdered sugar. My kids (2 teenaged picky eaters) were running errands for me and when they got home my son said “it smells great in here!”
My daughter exclaimed: “OMG! What is that?” as she pointed to my dumped out cake. I had them try it and they both LOVE it! So do I as it really grew on me after that first bite! So as the lasagna is in the oven and the focaccia is rising, almost ready to be baked, I’m setting up all the dry ingredients in the four short mugs I found in my china cabinet. After dinner, as they finish, they can add the wet ingredients, stir in whatever else they each like and make their own dessert!
Gotta say that I will be subscribing to your blog today and am having a great time perusing all you’ve got here!
Keep up the great work!
about 2 years ago
It’s definitely a novelty. And something to make when you just have a craving for something sweet.
If you’re looking for a company-worthy dessert, don’t worry, next week I’ll be posting my favorite Valentine’s Day treat–molten chocolate cakes.
about 2 years ago
Oh man, talk about instant gratification. I’m all over this one. Let us eat cake.
about 2 years ago
Can you substitute Eggbeaters? I’m going to try
about 2 years ago
Good question, I haven’t tried it, but I’m thinking it would work. You’ll have to report back.
about 2 years ago
I made two of these last night–made the man of the house stir his. I could imagine it would be a fun thing to do with kids–they could each mix their own mugful. It was really rich–I couldn’t eat all mine. I’ll have the leftovers with my afternoon tea today. Thanks for the fun recipe!
about 2 years ago
I’m glad you liked it! One is definitely enough for two–or three people. Then again, there are days when I’ll happily eat the whole thing solo.
about 2 years ago
Yikes…Might be dangerous for me to add this recipe to my repertoire…but then it looks so tempting in that mug.
about 2 years ago
Isn’t that mug cute? I wish I could take credit for finding it but my daughter got it as a gift from a friend.