Mug cakes!

[I meant to write a blog post this week but I haven't - so I brought this one forward. It was meant to be a backup for during Camp. #oops]


As I said in my very first post, my new favourite thing is mug cakes. MUG CAKES. CAKE in a CUP and you eat it with SPOON. I don't know why I love the idea so much, but it's so cute.


And since this is the Camp preparation season, I figured it would be a great time to share a few recipes for a three-minute (roughly) cake that you can eat at your desk (or wherever you write). Because food = motivation. Especially rich food. And this lava mug cake is very rich.


(You will need a microwave. Or you could probably cook it in the oven - but I don't know how long for. You could work it out, though - this is in no way an exact science!)



All credit and everything to the blog I got the recipe from (the pictures, too).

* * * * *

Microwave Chocolate Lava Mug Cake

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 small pinch salt
4 tablespoons white sugar
4 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder


Melt the butter in a coffee mug. Add water, vanilla and salt and stir until smooth. Add sugar, cocoa powder and flour and stir until all the lumps are out. Cook in the microwave for 30 seconds. If you want less "lava" and more cake you can cook it for 10 seconds more.



...Variations:


- Peanut Butter Lover. Add 1 teaspoon peanut butter.

- Chocolate Covered Berry. Add 1 teaspoon raspberry or strawberry jam.

- Gimme S'More. Add 10 mini marshmallows and a sprinkling of graham cracker crumbs.

- A La Mode. One scoop of ice cream and you've got yourself a rockin' dessert!

- Caramel Lover. Add two square caramel candies.

- Mint To Be. Sprinkle with mint baking chips or crushed up candy canes.

- Nuts For Hazelnuts. Add one teaspoon of Nutella.

- Chocoholic. Add a handful of chocolate chips or pieces of a chopped up candy bar.

* * * * *

So there you have an incredibly unhealthy, gooey, seriously chocolate cup of cake.

Note: when I made it, we decided that 2 tablespoons of butter, 4 of sugar, and 2 of cocoa sounded like a leeetle bit much considering we'll put that much cocoa and a cup of sugar (double) for a whole cake. And this is only a tiny cup-cake mug cake. I cut down the cocoa to one and a half tablespoons... and yet there is no way I could have eaten the whole cupful of mug cake.

Which brings me to another point: younger siblings. I have four. They all wanted my mug cake. We ended up each getting a spoon and taking a scoop (we went through a lot of spoons, because they all wanted second helpings, and we don't do double-dipping).



After all that chocolate, I thought I'd try something a little more delicate. Honey mug cake (all credit to the blog I got it from, here - again, picture included).

* * * * * 

Honey Mug Cake

Makes: 1 mug cake

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 1 minute 15 seconds

Ingredients:

Mug Cake
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp runny honey
1 medium egg
½ tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp light brown sugar
4 tbsp self-raising flour, see notes
pinch of salt

Frosting
2 tbsp butter, softened
4 tbsp icing (confectioners') sugar
(optional) runny honey

Directions:

1. Add the butter to a mug and melt in the microwave for around 10-20 seconds.
2. Add the honey, egg and vanilla and beat with a fork until combined.
3. Add the sugar, flour and salt and beat again until fully combined and smooth.
4. Cook in the microwave for around 1 minute 15 seconds to 1 minute 30 seconds (depending on your microwave power), then allow to cool to room temperature.
5. Meanwhile, to make the frosting, add the butter and icing (confectioners') sugar to another mug and use a fork to cut the butter into the icing sugar until it reaches a clumpy texture, then beat with the fork until fluffy, around 1-2 minutes).
6. Spoon the frosting into a small piping bag or a ziplock bag fitted with an open star or plain round tip and pipe a swirl onto the top of the cooled cake.
7. (Optional) Drizzle with extra honey and serve immediately.

Notes:

• If you do not have self-raising flour, substitute with plain (all-purpose) flour and add ¼ tsp baking powder.

• Don't fancy drizzling the honey? Just add between ¼-½ tsp runny honey to the frosting to taste. Hey presto, honey flavoured frosting!

* * * * *

This one did take a little longer and does contain egg. I admit I couldn't be bothered making 'frosting' (is that 'icing' in American??). I just ate the cake, although I could have simply put honey on top.

...correction: we ate the cake. Six of us. Although when everyone had had a 'dig' with their spoon, I took the remnants and ate them myself. Because it was quite nice, and smelt of hot honey.

(That's another thing! These get HOT, and stay hot for ages. But you're big kids. You can deal with that.)

*****

Hopefully I've inspired you to try your hand at a mug cake - they're so delightfully gooey! - and hopefully a mug cake is sufficient motivation to jolt you out of those sticky (that was an accident honest) spots in your Camp journey! (and besides what's camp without food?) (not that I've ever been on an actual camp)

Do you have a particular food to help you through Camp, or just while you're writing in general? And please tell me if you end up making a mug cake, I'd love to hear! :)