Recipe Wednesday

Hi Everyone

This weeks recipe is a new one for me - it's a Mug Cake. I saw the idea in a recent blog and felt the need to give it go. I was quite sceptical about using my microwave for 'baking' but the method of cooking does fit extremely well with the midweek, easy make pudding theme of my Wednesday blog.  I have used a microwave for baking before (a very long time ago) and was never that impressed with the results but the idea of the mug thing really had me hooked.

I did some research and finally decided on a book called Mug Cakes by Mima Sinclair. I searched on Amazon and used the 'look inside' facility, the recipe which appeared was a Mocha Mug Cake. So, that's the one I made.

The first issue I had was finding a mug big enough - 350ml is quoted as the size. Eventually, I did find such a mug in my cupboard, but it's quite a large mug. The recipe includes all the usual ingredients in a cake but using a tablespoon to measure straight into the mug, 1tblsp.butter, 2 of sugar, 2 of flour, 1 of milk, 1 egg, pinch salt as well as chopped up chocolate (20gms) and coffee granules 2 teaspoons disolved in 2 tbsp. hot water. The butter is melted with the chocolate first and then the rest of the ingredients are added and mixed into the mug. The mug is then placed into the centre of the microwave. My microwave is a 700 and there was a guideline of about 2mins for baking. Amazingly, the cake rises very quickly up the mug and above the rim. After the 2 min timing, the cake fell down to fill about half of the mug (I'm not sure this should happen ?) I turned out the cake onto a plate to cool and then decorated with cream and raspberries (my regular decoration if nothing else available !).

Generally, the cakes were a success. I made 2 cakes and sliced them for serving a family of 4.  The boys gave the pudding 12/15, I gave a 4 (which includes ease of making and washing up as well as taste). The pudding got a 16/20 which means it goes into the book.

                               

This image shows the cake coming out of the microwave after baking, doesn't look too tasty at this point.

                               

The second image shows how the pudding arrived at the table. The texture was quite heavy but it tasted lovely. Having made the pudding I've bought the book and on further reading, I think, I can improve on the cooking part. I don't think it was cooked long enough ? The book gives lots of additional advice re cooking but I'm convinced enough to keep going for a while. The book has lots of interesting flavour options and I'm going to try another one this evening. Will share my findings next time.

Thanks for reading.