Mug Cake--First Experiment

Mug cake with chocolate chips, with

fresh berries. (source: dreamstime.com)

Recently, upon discovering that I'd acquired a great fascination with cakes, I began exploring the wonderful world of mug cakes.  

Mug cakes are one-person-sized cakes where the batter is poured into an oversized coffee mug and baked in a microwave oven.  These two factors limit their caloric impact (and the potential waste of pantry resources if things go wrong) as well as being pleasantly quick to make (most are fully baked in one or two minutes and none take over 10 minutes to make from start to finish).  They may, but need not, contain an egg or part of an egg, and usually incorporate a small amount of baking powder to help them rise.  

Early 21st century life certainly explains the rising popularity of mug cakes, though The Food Timeline notes that cakes have been baked in teacups and similar small containers before now.  Wikipedia lumps mug cakes together with cupcakes, and it's certainly true that both are in the same size range.  The main difference is that cupcakes are usually baked in a conventional oven, often in quantities of a dozen at a time, while the beauty of mug cakes is that usually only one, or at most two to four, are made at a time so that the temptation to overindulge does not linger.  

My husband, who really likes certain kinds of cake but doesn't want to be taunted by a huge cake oversupply either, encouraged my exploration.  When my search turned up a peanut butter mug cake recipe on Kirbie's Cravings, I knew I had to give it a try.  

I followed the recipe with only two changes:  I used dark brown sugar instead of white, and I used only 3 1/4 tablespoons of it instead of the 4 tablespoons called for by the recipe.  I also used natural peanut butter instead of the Skippy peanut butter that Kirbie admitted she had used.  

The end result of my labors was, to me, a bit like magically transforming the peanut butter into a slightly dry cake that tasted exactly the same as the peanut butter.  I didn't care for it at first (it wasn't even slightly sweet), but the taste began to grow on me as I nibbled it.  Sadly, my husband didn't like the cake at all.  He said that he disliked its texture.  The texture reminded him of oatmeal, a food he hates precisely because he finds its texture revolting.  

However, there are legions of mug cake recipes on the Internet, and I have collected six or seven more recipes that I'm eager to try.  Because my husband and I both love carrot cake, a carrot cake in a mug will likely be next.  Watch this space!