Deep and Dark | by Samer Farha
Sometimes you want some chocolate.
Sometimes, the urge is so strong you’ll dirty every pan and appliance in the kitchen in order to make something — anything — with chocolate. You’ll melt chocolate and make your own truffles; you’ll read old baking books and tweak recipes; you’ll even make your own bittersweet chocolate bars. Well, okay, maybe not you. Maybe, just maybe, I’m obsessive about chocolate.
I’ve always relegated the microwave to doing the tasks that would speed up things that I don’t want to wait for in the kitchen. Menial things: boiling water, melting butter, warming milk, and so on and so forth. Once in a great while (shh, don’t tell Nicole) I’d use the microwave to heat a frozen meal or reheat some left overs. Don’t you judge me — I was hungry!
Just Frosty | by Samer Farha
Despite the promises of various gizmos to let you cook bacon in the microwave, I was never tempted to use it as a way to actually, you know, cook anything. Until last Thursday, that is. I was carefully minding my own business when the wonderful and talented Rania (seriously, go buy something from her) tweeted about five minute chocolate cake in a mug.
After a lot of blinking I thought, “this can’t possibly be good. It’s prepared in a mug and then cooked! cooked! in a microwave.” Nicole would surely not approve.
A few days ago, I tried it out. Sure enough, it tasted good. Not nearly enough chocolate taste for me, and it was a bit on the dry side. But it worked. Start to finish it had taken 10 minutes, used one mug, one spoon, one plate, and one fork.
Immediately, I started to think of ways I could get more chocolate oomph out of this recipe. I played around a bit. It’s a very forgiving recipe. At the end of the day, even if you screw it up royally, it’s only cost you 10 minutes and 30¢ worth of ingredients.
Tonight, I think I might have hit a home run with it. Coming home from dinner and not having had dessert, and still wanting something, anything, made of chocolate, I started in on the mug. I reduced the flour a bit, preferring to increase the cocoa powder. I also melted some chocolate and replaced the oil with butter. Lastly, I replaced the milk with what I had on hand: Naked Juice’s Might Mango. I’ve always thought orange and mango tasted great with chocolate, so why not?
Well, I was right when I said “this can’t possibly be good.” I’ve now got a way to make a very rich, very deep, very chocolate cake in just ten minutes. This is most certainly not good.
The mango is sort of drowned out by the chocolate, so perhaps I’d stay with milk next time. But the cake, once cooled a bit, is really, really good. Moist (more so than the original), a bit crumbly, and very much made of chocolate.
Let Them Eat Cake. Now. | by Samer Farha
Let Them Eat Cake. Now.
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 3 tablespoons semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
- 1 large egg
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted
- 2 fluid ounces milk, orange juice, or other complimentary juice
Sift (yeah, you should) the flour, cocoa, and sugar into an extra large coffee mug (you can use a regular mug, but the cake will rise above the rim). Add a small pinch of salt, if you’d like. Melt the chocolate and butter together (1 minute on high should do the trick), and set aside to cool just a touch. Mix the dry ingredients well, making sure to get into the edges of the mug. Crack the egg into the mug and mix well. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Don’t over work it, but you should make sure there’s very few lumps (didn’t I tell you to sift?).
Place mug in microwave and cook on high for about 3 minutes on high. Let it set up for two or three more minutes. Be careful: the ceramic of the mug will retain heat quite well, so handle with care. Carefully extract the cake onto a plate. Let it cool for a few minutes more and eat. Or cover in powdered sugar and eat. Or cover in some royal icing and eat. Or maybe make some whipped cream and eat. Or, you know, just eat it all ready!
Leave a comment if you try this out and let me know of your variations. I did discover that if you put chocolate chips in the batter, they will melt into the cake. I might try again with bigger chunks of chocolate, or maybe hazelnuts or something. Yeah, this wasn’t a good idea.
I’m actually really stunned that this is working so well!
I tried the original recipe yesterday… I think it tasted good if you consider that I only spent 5 min on it.
I’ll be sure to try your variation and maybe make one myself…
But do you take sweetened or regular cocoa powder?
Svea
I don’t think we have sweetened cocoa powder here. I use a Dutch processed cocoa powder from Ghirardelli. If you use sweetened, you’ll probably want to reduce the sugar.
I’m going to make it right now. RIGHT NOW!
Used milk as liquid, and added some ground cardamom (LOVE it with chocolate). When it’s done baking, I plan on pouring some rum on it.
Oh. My. God. I’m telling EVERYbody how you are my hero!
Well… I tried it once with sweetened cocoa and once with unsweetened – It worked out just fine both times although the first cake was indeed a litte too sweet.
But I’m quite sure there is sweetened cocoa powder in the US… the one you can use for making hot chocolate
I just moved to Austria from the US for a semester abroad. My dorm room doesn’t have a kitchen, only a stove and microwave, and I’ve been frustrated by the lack of familiar ingredients with which to make even non-baked desserts. I’m a compulsive baker, and the lack was killing me. Thank you! I’m going to try this tomorrow. You may have saved me.
Gorgeous photo, as always … and I must admit this looks intriguing. Now, if only I had a microwave!!
We made two:one with milk and one with pom/blueberry juice. I think the pom juice made the cake taste more like dark chocolate. It has the consistency of the cakes with the melting chocolate center. May try again on a PMS mission.
Cool idea! Thanks for tweaking it for us.
~ingrid
I followed your recipe, but substituted 3 oz baker’s chocolate and upped the sugar to 6 T. Substituted soymilk for regular milk. Added a splash of almond extract. Since I didn’t have a large mug, I microwaved it in a microwaveable cereal bowl.
The result was good. If you can get past its blob-like appearance, it’s pretty darn good. The cake I made tasted like Sprinkles cupcakes dark chocolate cake. Mmm…Thank you!
Just a warning, this cake dries out VERY quickly. In the time it takes you to eat even half of it, you will notice a sharp decrease in its moisture. Still good, though. Completely worth the time.
[...] dessert. Tonight was one of those nights and we didn’t have anything. Or so we thought. I saw this recipe for chocolate cake in 10 minutes and figured, what the heck. It was delicious. Chocolaty and quick. [...]
this was okay for taking 10 minutes, but it did dry out pretty quickly. i think adding whole chocolate chips to the batter as suggested above might help with this.
Yeah we just tried this and it pretty much sucks. We didn’t sift (we’re college students, god damnit), but still, the cake was hardly pleasing. I’d rather just take half an hour and bake a real cake, or better yet go have sex with my girlfriend. Oh wait….
I just made this. Awesome! I think I’ll experiment next. Thinking of using coffee for the liquid…
Thanks for posting this. I really wanted some cake but didn’t want to bake a whole one when there was no occasion. I like this tweaked one much better than Raina’s (though her art is pretty sweet).
Variations: coconut milk for my lactose intolerance (little effect on the taste of the cake by the aroma definitely has some coconut underneath all that CHOCOLATE)
peanut butter cream cheese frosting — it was super light and whipped so it paired well with the dense chocolate of the cake.
A+++ would eat again.
I just came across this and it sounds wonderful! Sadly, in my old age I’ve developed an intolerance to chocolate (yeah, I know, poor me!!!). I wonder does anyone know of an equivalent recipe that is almost any other flavour? My partner is allergic to wheat so being able to occasionally (who am I kidding?!?!?!) make a single serving of cake would be great!!!
thanks!!!
THE CAKE IS A LIE!!!!
-sorry, couldn’t resist.
Anyway, that cake looks delicious. I am going to go right now (it is 1:00 here) and make it immediately. BTW, found this site via StumbleUpon. Just wanna let you know it’s up there. God, Stumbling is soooo addicting, must get sleep…
I was linked by Mme70, and have been waiting for the right time to try the recipe. I’m gluten free, and my boyfriend is diabetic so there’s no real sugar in the house. I was worried, since GF flours are notoriously dense and resistant to rising, but figured in a microcosm it might work.
I followed the recipe above exactly, using self-raising gluten free flour and a splenda-like sugar substitute. I added a pinch of xanthan gum and a sprinkle of flaked almonds. The result is good! It’s super, super rich — far more than I need from a cake. It’s also far more in quantity than I can possibly finish myself.
I’ll definitely make it again, but might try scaling it down in mass. I’d also like to try a yellow cake version. I’ll let you know how it goes! Thanks for the recipe!
Yummmm!!! I didn’t have cocoa or chocolate chips, so I used chocolate pudding with mini butterscotch chips. Yeah! Very moist and delicious. My only problem was that my husband and son came home early from work and I had to make extra. This is definately a new favorite. I stumbled upon this site and I’m so glad.
[...] I know I preach about always getting out of the office for lunch, but how could I ignore this link Lunch’er Adam forwarded to me. If you can make a sandwich from meat purchased at Murray’s Salami, and sushi at your desk from ingredients purchased at Yagura, why not make a chocolate cake in a coffee mug using your company’s microwave?!? [...]
I wonder if it’d work w/out the egg…like can you buy just one egg if you’re working in midtown and don’t have a fridge in your office? Also for my teen who’s egg allergic, it’d be a neat snack he could make…we’ll just have to experiment and see.
I am going to try this tonight. Looks fun. I may add a touch of vanilla for more flavor! Leslie, you may want to try sub’ing soda, something cola for the egg, butter and milk. My friends sometimes follow a Weight Watcher’s recipe for a box cake that subs one can of diet coke for all of that and just mixes it with the box mix and it turns out . . . worth a try for a quick work fix at work or for your teen!
Holy cow this is some of the best chocolate cake I’ve ever tasted. Much better than the first version of this I tried. Thanks a lot!
Hi! Thank you so much for sharing the recipe. I looove it! Made it twice already and turns out perfect everytime. Thanks again! =)
Oh my gosh. I made this last night. Thank you thank you thank you. I usually have these ingredients lying around the house, but I hate to make a whole batch of sweets because then we’re stuck eating them and adding to our love handles. Plus my husband doesn’t really like chocolate. This was delicious. I ate it steaming hot with whipped cream!
Stumbled upon this site through StumbleUpon.com
Great quick recipe especially for students like me !
I found the same recipe a few days ago and instantly went at it with different variations. Only one that’s really been noteworthy in my house is adding chopped walnuts to the dry ingredients before mixing it with the egg and such. Makes it tastes like a softer brownie. Wonderful recipe overall.
This is awesome, who thought a microwave could do much more than zap cold or frozen food?! I just made it, turned out perfectly, not as chocolatey as I wanted, but the texture was superb. I would add free floating chocolate chips next time, or melt them for a sauce. Genious.