Bake a Cake in the Microwave

 

I decided to make this cake, well, for no real reason. I've bookmarked a bunch of microwave mug cakes, but this one sounded nice since it is supposed to make three servings, perfect for our family of three. So after dinner one night I threw it together while Sonny D was getting cleaned up for bed.

Inspiration

Angry Chicken 3-minute cake

If you wanted to make this dairy-free, use non-dairy milk and substitute oil for the melted butter.

Ingredients

3-4 servings

• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons milk (I used almond milk)
• 3 tablespoons melted butter (um, if you look in the pictures, mine wasn't melted, but at least was really soft)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla and instant esperesso powder (if desired)
• small handful of chocolate chips

Directions

Mix all the ingredients and pour in a shallow container.  I used one of our pasta bowls. 

I'd like to say my son helped me, but I made this mess all by myself.

I suppose I could have made it all in the shallow pasta bowl, but I know those are hard to work with. 

Smooth enough batter.

The recipe didn't mention if you should spray the "baking" dish, but I figured it wouldn't hurt so I spritzed it with Trader Joe's coconut oil spray.

Shallow dish

We've got a powerful 1200-watt microwave so I cooked it for only 2 minutes rather than the 3 minutes indicated in the recipe.  It was definitely done.  

I set out our bowls while we waited for the cake to cool.

Side view.

I had mine with some spray whipped cream on top. Sonny D had his plain.  I don't recall what Husband Jeff did with his. 

Verdict

This was pretty good straight out of the microwave, but it definitely got a bit chewier as it sat. Thin and dense, not really what I think of as a cake. More like a soft cookie.

I had to cut up Sonny D's with his spoon before he could eat it since it was so dense.  He ate it and seemed to enjoy it, but what kid doesn't like cake?

We ended up splitting this into four servings with one bit leftover that I put into a plastic bag and put in the fridge. I ate it the next night as a quick dessert after a quick stop at the grocery store.  Good enough, but not really something I'm super excited to make again. 

I think maybe one whole egg is too much for the size of the batch and that's why it's a bit thick and chewy.  I wonder if skipping the egg like Chocolate-Covered Katie's vegan one-minute chocolate cake in a mug or this 5-minute wacky vegan microwave cake recipe would be better.  Also it's possible my microwave over-cooked it since it's so high-powered.  If I tried it again, I would skip the egg and cook it on a lower power setting.