5 Minute Chocolate Cake!

Regular readers of my blog will know that at times I 'Boldly go where no cook has gone before' - if you pardon the split infinitive. From Lasagna in a Dish Washer to The Burrito That Should Never Be, the chances are if it's crazy, and in the kitchen, you can count me in.

The 5 minute chocolate cake is one of those recipes that I suddenly seemed to be encountering everywhere, it was like culinary karma or something. I was being led to this recipe. So here it is in all its glory.

4 Tablespoons Cake Flour
4 Tablespoons Granulated Sugar
2 Tablespoons Cocoa
1 egg ( I use jumbo size)
3 Tablespoons milk
3 Tablespoons Veggie Oil
A Splash of Vanilla Extract
Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (optional, see below)
1 Mug

I would suggest a) Not using your best china or any mug you cannot spare. I have not had any problems, but I have heard horror stories of exploding mugs so proceed at your own risk!

First spray the inside of your mug with Pam to facilitate cake removal, and then mix together the flour, sugar and the cocoa.

Use a spoon or fork to get it really well mixed, and make sure you scrape right along the bottom of the mug and get in the corners.

Next crack in the egg, whisk it a little and then add the milk, oil and vanilla. Mix the cake batter thoroughly until it has combined in the mug.

In my last test I added 1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate chips. This gave the finished cake an almost 'Chocolate Lava Cake' texture. Next time I make it I will probably add 1/4 instead of 1/2 a cup, but really it's up to you. If you can put it in a chocolate cake you can probably add it to the mug.

Put the mug in the microwave. I put down some paper towels for safety's sake, but I've never actually had a boil over yet.

I microwave on full power for 3 minutes. You may need to adjust depending on the power of your microwave. After about 1 minute the mixture will begin to rise at quite an alarming rate and tower over the top of the mug. It's quite cool to watch.

I videoed it to show you, but a) it's done on my cell phone so the quality is not that good and b) the amount of chocolate chips made the batter heavy so it did not writhe around as much as my prior chip free attempt.

(wow, a 30 second badly filmed clip of a cup in a microwave. Can my blog get any more exciting!)

As soon as the microwave stops running the cake will sink very quickly. Do not be alarmed.

BE WARNED THE MUG IS VERY HOT. Use something to get it out of the oven or you will burn yourself.

I've found that even with the greasing the mug it still tends to break as you upturn the mug. Next time I'm going to run a knife around the edge of the mug first, this time I was too eager.

Here's the finished cake. As you can see, even with my own careful instruction to mix carefully I still missed a few spots creating a mottled bottom.

I would suggest serving it warm with either vanilla ice cream or chocolate sauce drizzled over the top.

So how does it taste? Well let's face it, it's a cake cooked in a microwave, it's never going to taste like a lovingly crafted oven baked chocolate dream, but if you are craving a quick burst of warm chocolaty goodness it's definitely worth the time. If for the novelty value if nothing else.

And think of the fun you can have with kids.

JUST DON'T BLAME ME IF YOUR MUG BREAKS!!!!!