Yesterday was our 2nd Wedding Anniversary and it so happened to fall on a Monday. Gah!
We had long since decided not to have a party but, instead, a quiet evening out by ourselves! But since I was at work all day (not called Manic Monday for nothing) I didn’t get a chance to bake a cake. And I didn’t think either of us should be eating a WHOLE cake by ourselves anyway. Aaaand I don’t believe in store-bought cakes for celebrations in our home!
Lucky for me, I happened to StumbleUpon a funky recipe for a cake in a coffee mug!! And although I’m a snob when it comes to microwave baking (even though many people I know swear by it, I believe that a microwave is fundamentally against the basic principles of baking!!) this particular recipe was too tempting to resist. Specially when it claimed it could deliver a cake, just for 2, in precisely 5 mins!
I’m ashamed to say I can’t give credit for this recipe because I was careless enough to take it down and Stumble on further, looking for more stuff and forgetting to take down the original blogger. But it does make me feel better when I remember that it wasn’t her original recipe either!
Here’s what I used:
4 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp cocoa powder
4 tbsp sugar
1 egg
3 tbsp orange marmalade (original recipe called for Nutella, but I had run out since I made the mistake of leaving a whole jar in the fridge, alone at home with AK!!)
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp milk
Here’s how I made it:
First, I sifted together the flour, baking powder, sugar and cocoa to mix them up. You could just whisk it all together in a bowl. Since we’re not technically “baking” in the traditional sense, no harm in cheating I say!
Then I put the milk & oil in the biggest (made-in-China fake Tim Horton) coffee cups I could find! Into the cup, I also cracked the egg…
Then I showed off my not-very-fancy bottle of marmalade!
Measured out the 3 tbsp…
And whisked the concoction with a fork for a minute…
Then I added the dry ingredients…
And whisked those in too…
Just for a few seconds until everything was combined and looked like this…
I placed the mug in the microwave and set the timer on high for 1.5 minutes…
When I opened the microwave, I discovered that the batter had overflown and wasn’t quite set, ruining my presentation!!
But fear not! I microwaved it for another 30 secs, cleaned up the mug, added a scoop of vanilla ice-cream and sprinkled it with Horlicks (chocolate malt powder) and voila!! (Well, I cleaned it up as best as I could! Promise I’ll add better pics when I make it again!
I guess I need to explore my microwave settings and zap the batter for 2 minutes on medium next time! All us bakers know that lower heat and longer time have better results. Pity I didn’t use the ingrained logic!!
Anyhow, that didn’t stop AK from gobbling up most of it by himself! Seriously though, the slight mishap aside, the orange-chocolate combination was divine! And I was totally happy with the quick-fix dessert idea and I’m DEFINITELY doing this again! Maybe once a week!
While I’m trying to find solutions for the mishap, AK’s making his whacky I’m-enjoying-this-immensely face!!
After we polished the Coffe-Mug Cake, we proceeded to cut the 2 cakes gifted to us by my MIL and my office team!! Oops, did I forget to mention we had THREE cakes, just for the 2 of us?? Happy Anniversary to AK & PK!!
Last Words:
Next time, I’m going to substitute the marmalade with Peanut Butter.
And the time after that, I might even try it with the original suggestion of Nutella!