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OK, it's after dinner, and I'm sitting around like those women in the chocolate Life commercial....but there's nothing in the house but cocoa powder and unsweetened chocolate (since I ate all the chocolate chips over the last few weeks) I think about making chocolate rice pudding, but don't want to expend the half an hour for something not good for me. So I sit at the computer and idly google...and come up with this

The recipe could use a little tweaking; like many cocoa-based cakes, it came out a little dry (I did the non-vegan version) maybe next time I'll use some of the unsweetened chocolate - but for two-minute no-cleanup from scratch microwave chocolate cake, I'll take it!

Thanks for the idea! Me and my sister are always looking for recipes like this, for a small cheat treat.

As I was rummaging last night, it occurred to me that it could use a little more fat...I had some white chocolate chips and melted them with the butter - I thought it made a definite improvement.

hmm, did the white chocolate just give more richness, or could you taste it? Maybe adding some dark chocolate would be good also.

Strictly richness/texture - if I hadn't eaten all the dark chocolate (somehow even the unsweetened chocolate is gone,) I'd have tried that. I also cooked it for 2 min instead of 2.5.

I'm guessing that the difference mentioned in the original recipe between the vegan and the egg-based is possibly more fat or sugar?

Anybody tried any of the other flavors?

Ok, I tried making it twice. The first time i used 2 T. of sugar instead of three. I also used about 1/2 of a jumbo egg, because I didnt have any soymilk. 2 1/2 minutes in the mic. was too long and it was dry and hard. Also 2 T. of sugar is not enough, you need the full 3. So I did it again, this time with 3 T of white sugar and only a minute in the mic. 1 min. was actually a little too long, it was a little crumbly. Also, it was very granule-y, I think from the white sugar. Next time I will use some type of liquid sweetener. Also, both times I added some crumbled unsweetened choco. in with the oil and melted that. The flavor of both cakes was very good. With some tweaking, I think the texture will improve quite a bit. I will def. use this recipe again.

More fat! More sugar!

I agree - it needs a little tweaking; I think adding a little of both will help. Fun to play with cooking chemistry on such a small scale, huh?

I misread the recipe and accidentally put in 3 T of cocoa, not 2. The result is a very chocolatey cake that is a tad on the dry side (oh, and I nuked for 2 min.).

That dryness, however, is nothing that can't be solved with a little bit of whipped topping, chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup, and 1/2 tsp of Godiva liquer drizzled on top. (and yes, I really did put all these things on it! what can I say, I gave up chocolate for Lent and now I'm binge-happy)

or dulce de leche and ice cream! Happy bingeing!

Single-serve Angel Food Cake Haven't tried it, but it looks like the "mix" is a good pantry addition, and it's a good emergency dessert.

Who makes a single serving of cake?

OK, OK, so I was thinking you could fill a set of muffin tins...

Seriously, I do like the chocolate one above, which in reality is probably 4 servings...

This is the first time I saw the post for the quick chocolate cake and I just had to try it. The recipe reminds me of the "cooking" I did in my college dorm room with just a microwave and toaster, I just wish I'd had this recipe then.

I used the egg because I was out of soymilk and added about a tablespoon of semi-sweet chocolate chips to it just because I had them. I also took the advice on here and cooked it for just one minute. The result was a slightly dry brownie-like dessert. It's definitely a good solution in the midst of a chocolate craving and because it serves just four I feel less guilty making it than most other options. I just wish I'd had some chocolate syrup to help the dryness. Next time I'll try the angel food cake...

OK, I've tweaked this enough that I'm going to post my latest full recipe here:

Chocolate-Almond Desperation Cake

2 Tbs. butter or vegetable oil
3 1/2 Tbs. sugar
1 tbsp almond paste
1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 egg
2 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 Tbs. all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp. baking powder

Directions:
Put butter, sugar, almond paste and chocolate into 4-cup microwaveable container. Heat in 15 second increments, stirring between each increment until chocolate is melted. Add the cocoa powder, egg, flour, and baking powder, and stir well. Spread evenly in the container - it should be between one and two inches deep.

Microwave on high for 2-2.5 minutes. Take the container out of the oven immediately when the cooking is done, take the lid off, and let cool for at least a few minutes. Frost with a chocolate ganache (equal parts semisweet or bittersweet chocolate and cream heated in the microwave.) Draw yourself a bubble bath, pour some champagne, light candles and indulge.

This is a great idea. Can you take out the almond paste? I'm thinking that having a recipe that most people would have all ingredients on hand would be the best. I don't usually keep almond paste. Its great to be able to whip up a small cake on the spur of the moment.

Almond paste keeps well in a squeeze tube in the refrigerator....right?

Well, I can't speak directly to food safety, but in this particular instance I used canned almond paste that had been sitting open in my refrigerator for some months, and it wasn't anything worse than a little dried out (and the dried-out bits worked beautifully in the cake) Since almond paste doesn't contain any egg (marzipan apparently does?) I don't see why it wouldn't keep indefinitely, it's not much different than peanut butter...

I still have a big lump left which I stored more appropriately in a ziploc bag.

For those of you who asked me about this, the recipe is above; I'd be interested to see how it stacks up against the email "mug cake" recipe that was mentioned at lunch today (if somebody has that email recipe, feel free to add it to the thread)

Bumping this up. Cathy was kind enough to find the original thread for me. Here's a recipe for mug cake I found on the net....untested.

http://www.recipezaar.com/Magic-Chocola ... ave-322553

Here are my modifications to the recipe:

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

4 Tbs flour
4 Tbs sugar
3 Tbs baking cocoa
1 egg
2 Tbs milk
3 Tbs chocolate chips ( optional )
2 Tbs oil
1 Tbs vanilla

Grease coffee mug with oil or Pam. Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk, vanilla and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips ( if using ), and mix again. Microwave for two minutes at full power. (Check after 1 minute 30, cake should appear slightly moist.) The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed.

*Notes: typically I reduce the amount of sugar, but when I tried to do so, it was not good. Which I'm sure is due to the fact that I increased the cocoa by a full Tbs. This makes a good, satisfying chocolate cake (which I typically split into two servings) but it's just a hair off and I can't put my finger on why. It's a little...too eggy? Not rich enough? I'm not sure.

Maybe substitute butter for the oil. When done, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and home made chocolate sauce. Put whip cream on that. That will fix anything.

Here is a good hot fudge sauce.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/dining/111crex.html

P.S. Note that the other recipe has a pinch of baking powder.

Gawd- the "mug cake" thing reminds me of when I was a teenager and I would nuke pancake mix batter and chocolate chips together in a coffee cup. OMG good. And I wish I had that metabolism that would drive me to eat such things nowadays!

Well, we got busted by Sparky for eating cake and watching movies after his bedtime...so to make it up to him, I doubled the Chocolate-Almond recipe and made it in one of those Pyrex bread pans. Thought I'd share, in case you have 5 minutes to spare and almond paste in your cupboard:



It's a damn fine cake, if I do say so myself.

Please....no more torture! That looks FINE! *drool* Thanks for sharing the recipe.

Here is a recipe for make in one bowl chocolate cake. I have not tried it.

http://www.molliekatzen.com/recipes/rec ... olate_cake

The Tribune recently ran this recipe for a microwave mug brownie:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/ ... 2350.story

sometimes the print link works better:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/ ... rint.story

The Dutch-English-Chinese Food blog Kattebelletje has a post today about microwave mug chocolate cakes, including a recipe for a 3-minute version.

That is a long way around the world to go for cake!

Via Food Gawker, I found this 3-minute gluten-free pumpkin mug cake. It sounds OK. Problems: I don't always have pumpkin, and 1/2 an egg is a annoying. I may try it this weekend anyway.

While I rarely use it, I always keep eggbeaters in the freezer (yes, they freeze well) in case I run out of eggs (which tends to happen when I'm right in the middle of baking) Half an egg is easy if you use them; they're perfect for micro-baking. Looking at the recipe, I don't know that pumpkin is required: I bet you could replace the 2 tbsp of pumpkin with the other half of the egg and some other kind of flavoring. Or replace it with a fruit puree, maybe a dried-fruit puree would be easiest.

The good news about these recipes: if you screw it up while experimenting, it goes into the garbage with very little waste.