Microwave mug cakes

Somehow we’ve previously missed the concept of microwave mug cakes – which are exactly what they sound like – super quick cakes you bake in the microwave in a coffee mug. Since these sound like an excellent addition to a comfort food reportoire, we decided to look into them a bit. After a little research, it does appear that two reasons for avoiding them is an insistence that these be targetted for the younger set, or that they use a base that starts with cake mixes. But we did find two recent articles that allow both for more adult tastes and starting from scratch.

The Kitchen, in 13 Easy Microwave Mug Cakes That Are All Grown Up., writes:

“Just because these desserts are made in a microwave, it doesn’t mean the cakes can’t be made from scratch and taste good. None of these mug cakes use a cake mix, and all of them go a little beyond your normal funfetti or chocolate pudding bomb kind of mug cake you normally see.”  They’ve collected 13 recipes from blogs on the website, with such classic flavors as chocolate and salted caramel, lime coconut, and apple cinnamon.

And over at BuzzFeedFood, they have 7 Essential Tips for Mug Cake Baking. Here they emphasize, among other things, that you don’t need to restrict your holder to a mug and that one essential key is never to fill your cooking vessel more than half full. They also publish a number of recipes, including for Red Velvet, Espress, Banana, and Pink Champagne.

And if you are intrigued and want to go further, take a look at these 13 books on the subject in the EYB library.

Photo of Espresso Mug Cake by Teri Lyn Fisher, from Mug Cakes