molten chocolate mug cake

• total tid: total time 15 minutes

Ingredienser

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon

Dutch-processed cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon baking powder

⅛ teaspoon table salt

1 ounce milk or dark chocolate, divided

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 2 pieces

1 large egg

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Vejledning

1 Whisk flour, sugar, cocoà, baking powder, and salt together in bowl; set aside. Break ½ ounce of the chocolate into rough 1-inch pieces then add to 12-ounce mug with butter. Microwave butter and chocolate pieces at 50 percent power, stirring often, until melted, 1 to 2 minutes. Add flour mixture, egg, and vanilla and mix until smooth and well combined (being sure to scrape corners of mug).

2 Microwave cake batter at 50 percent power until batter has doubled in size, 50 to 70 seconds. Break remaining ½ ounce chocolate into two pieces and press into center of cake with top of chocolate flush with top of cake. Microwave cake at 50 percent power until cake is firm but top is just wet to the touch, 15 to 30 seconds (cake may rise above edge of mug, but will not overflow). Let cake rest for 2 minutes. Serve.

Notater

kitchen improv

level up Add instant espresso powder or grated orange zest with the dry ingredients; top with your favorite ice cream or Whipped Cream for One (page 289).

why this recipe works Warm, rich chocolate cake with a molten chocolate center can be yours in a mere 15 minutes. Even better, no need to turn on the oven, get out your baking pans, or even open up a boxed mix. For this single-serving cake, we use cocoa and chocolate to give it a deep chocolate flavor, and we need only a mug, a bowl, and a microwave to make it happen. While some recipes for mug cakes mix everything in the mug, we found that whisking the dry ingredi- ents in a bowl first ensured they were well-mixed (no unpleasant pockets of baking soda). Using 50 percent power kept the cake moist and tender, and tucking a few pieces of chocolate inside partway through gave us that ooey-gooey molten center. We developed this recipe in a full-size 1200-watt microwave. If the wattage of your microwave is less than 1200 watts, you will need to increase the

cooking times throughout. See page 15 for more information about

microwaves. We prefer Dutch-processed cocoa in this recipe; the cake will be slightly drier if you use natural cocoa powder. We prefer bar chocolate (milk, dark, or bittersweet), as chocolate chips are harder to insert into the cake to form the molten center.