Voilà! My first cake in a mug! Not exactly a success (because it’s a little bit too bitter), but at least it’s not a failure either! I mean, it has the texture of a cake, it looks and tastes chocolate, so what more can you ask from an amateur cook like me?
I woke up today to the sound of pouring rain. Grey clouds. Gloomy skies. The whole depressing set of Monday Blues. Ugh. And then, I started fantasising about chocolate, as I always inexplicably do, about how nice it would be to snuggle in bed with a steaming mug of hot cocoa piled high with fresh whip cream.
I was feeling all warm and cozy under my sheets, and didn’t feel like getting out of bed or destroying this blissful ignorance of life outside my room. So, I logged onto Pinterest to feast my eyes on chocolate goodies, living vicariously through the Internet and all that. Wrong move. What started out as an annoying niggling chocolate craving at the back of my head transformed itself into a full-blown chocolate obsession. Well, this is what happens when a chocoholic is tempted by high-resolution photos of cupcakes and ice-cream. She begins to salivate at the mere sight of words like “Devil’s Food Cupcakes with Peanut Butter & Chocolate Twirled Frosting” or even as simple as “Chocolate Buttercream Frosting“.
At this instant, I was suddenly hit by a vivid memory of C & I having the most random conversation about baking during one of our many Tesco walking trips together. The cashier was ringing up our groceries at the till while we were having a heated discussion about using a rice cooker to bake a cake. I was telling her you could literally cook anything with a rice cooker (even fry an egg!), and she was looking at me with utter disbelief on her face. And then, she argued that you can’t bake a cake with a rice cooker, and I countered that yes you can – I saw it in the cooker manual. This debate went on for awhile, and she started telling me about how she made a mug cake with the microwave just under 5 minutes.
So, I came out of my reverie as inspiration hit me – I shall make a mug cake! I rapidly searched Google for recipes, then clicked fanatically and repeatedly on ‘Open in a new tab’ like a crazy woman until I found one that I liked the looks of. Gooey Chocolate Mug Cakes in 2 Minutes!
Okay, those who know me will know that I absolutely detest anything to do with baking or cooking. And, washing up dishes after that. So, for me to do this means either: A) I have gone mad with chocolate crave, or B) I am so bored to death at home that I would rather bake than do nothing and rot in bed watching another episode of F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
So, I searched the drawers for Mum’s old baking kit. I got the ingredients prepared and expected to finish in 20 minutes (because I had to use an oven instead of a microwave). I know, absolutely outrageous, isn’t it, not owning a freaking microwave! Oh, the horrors of it! I could barely survive 2 days without a microwave if I was living alone and being solely responsible for feeding myself.
Anyway, guess how long it took for me to bake my mug cake? 40 bloody minutes! 2-minute mug cakes MY FOOT! I guess what stumped me the most was melting the butter. Don’t ask why. I feel really stupid as it is that the simplest of tasks to everyone else is like an obstacle course for me. And then, the ingredients in the mug got all sticky and clumped together stubbornly no matter how hard I mixed them. I was hot with exasperation by the end of it.
I substituted cinnamon powder for vanilla extract (ran out of those), and adjusted the oven to 180 degrees for 15 minutes, but the cake still wasn’t cooked when the timer ran out, so I kept adding 10 minutes and 10 minutes again after that until I over-cooked the bloody thing. Heh. Not the molten gooey chocolate center I was going for, but it wasn’t rock hard like Hagrid’s cauldron cakes either! So, semi-success, no?
Well, it was certainly an interesting way to spend a rainy afternoon.