The miracle of microwavable cake!

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When my older brother and I were in undergrad together at Washington University in St Louis, I used to take him grocery shopping with my mom's credit card.  I was always a little appalled (and admittedly a weensy bit envious) at the things he'd chuck into the cart: frozen pizzas, chocolate milk, canned whipped cream, more frozen pizzas/breakfast sandwiches/soft pretzels.  And, one time, some sort of packaged chocolate gloop that theoretically turned into cake when you add water and put it in the microwave.



I was skeptical, but my brother thought it was manna from heaven.  He stood there in the baking mix aisle of the massive Schnucks (yes, that's the grocery store in St Louis) and extolled the virtues of this 2-minute cake as if he'd discovered the secret to eternal youth and irresponsibility.  I rolled my eyes at him and picked up a box of brownie mix, promising to give him half the pan.

A few years later, someone posted something on a random food blog about how one can, conceivably, make a chocolate cake from scratch, from real ingredients, in the microwave.  But I was still skeptical.  I was sure it would be disgusting.  I mean, microwave cake?  But then, on foodgawker, I saw a photo of something delicious-looking peeking over the top of a mug, and I clicked on over to Almost Bourdain, where there were yet more pics of what looked to be a delectable chocolate cake, made in the microwave!

I still wasn't sure I believed the hype, but I also had no better ideas for using the one egg we had left in the fridge before it went bad.  So I wrote down the directions, altering them just a bit to allow me to use up some of our dregs of cocoa, and went at it.  Five minutes later (I kid you not), I was digging into a steaming mug of chocolate cake!

Now, it's not the most amazing cake I've ever had, but it ain't half bad either!  It's kind of spongy and not as moist as I'd like, but I'm not altogether sure that doesn't have to do with our microwave and the fact that I have no idea what wattage it is and may have overcooked the cake... but at least I won't get salmonella!

All in all, it's a pretty awesome one-serving (well, I ate half and saved the rest for the bf) way to use up an extra egg!

Chocolate Mug Cake:

In  a large mug, melt:
     3 tbsp butter 

Combine in a small bowl:
     2 tbsp cocoa powder
     4 tbsp flour
     4 tbsp sugar

Add to flour mixture:
     1 egg
     1/4 tsp vanilla (I forgot this step, and the cake was still tasty, but I think it would have benefited greatly from the addition)
     3 tbsp milk

Add the batter to the melted butter and stir well.


Cook the mug-o-batter in a microwave, 3 minutes for 1000 watts.  Dig in!