August 20, 2009

Microwave Cupcake



MC Cupcake 2


This is a 2 minute wonder. Another fantastic recipe for kids to do with very little help.

Another of my Cheater Recipes…

I am the kind who uses the microwave only for heating & defrosting. Rarely do I cook in the microwave. But this particular day, after lunch the kids proclaimed with sad faces that they wished they had some chocolate cake for dessert. I kinda felt sorry for them; there was nothing at home other than some fruits & raisins to make those sweet teeth happy.  Google to the rescue, as usual & I found a cute red cup with a cup cake in it at Coffee & Vanilla & made it right away, with slight changes… yes it was indeed a 2 minute magic, especially when those 2 pairs of eyes sparkled to see a rising cake in the microwave! This is more of a cake in a cup than the little cupcakes in paper cups in the traditional sense. However it  is not impossible to bake them in the traditional form.

UPDATE (or rather a WARNING):

I have had this recipe a many times by others. Some loved it and some quite did not and you can read all about in the comments below. I do appreciate your honest opinions!

I needed to update this post and it with the same things I have mentioned below and after the recipe, but I get a feeling most people do not read through the post and head straight to the recipe. DO NOT expect this to be a cake from an European Pastry shop. DO NOT even expect it to be a dense moist juicy love to bite into delectable home made chocolate cake which you would have baked spending 2 hours or more of your time. It is not. It is far from moist. BUT it takes only less than 5 minutes of your time and your expectation should match the amount of time  and effort you are putting into making it.

Have it right away, and NOT by itself. You will be disappointed. Use ice cream/cream/chocolate syrup/sauce anything. But the best to have this is to soak it with juice or booze (for adult version). Since it is cooked in the Microwave, it is dried out (microwave will dry out anything, esp. when cooked uncovered).. but the texture is such that it is a great candidate for soaking like a sponge cake. If you are soaking it, let is sit for a couple of minutes.

Please read the instructions and adjust sugar, cocoa and other flavorings to your taste. I hope this helps you to make this, and also set your expectations.



Few Notes about this cake before I go to the recipe:

This is not like an oven baked cake; it is far from moist & dense, but pretty hollow & spongy in texture.

Eaten without any ice cream or sauce, it tastes a lot like a thick sponge cookie, but what the heck! how does it matter? it is a chocolate cake. At the end of the recipe is a list of ideas to how this cake might be enjoyed by adults too…


MC Cupcake 5



Microwave Cup Cake


Ingredients: (makes 1 Coffee Mug Cup Cake)

  1. 3 Tablespoons Plain Flour
  2. 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  3. 1/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon powder (Optional)
  4. 1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
  5. 2 Tablespoons Caster Sugar (more or less)
  6. 2 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder
  7. 1  small Egg
  8. 2 Tablespoons Oil
  9. 2 Tablespoons Milk or Orange Juice ( I used orange juice)
  10. Dusting sugar, ice cream, or some sauce / syrup to serve (Optional)



Preparation:

Combine & Whisk all ingredients together in a bowl. Pour content in a coffee mug.

Cook for about 2.5 minutes on full power in microwave. (Cooking time may vary a little with the powe of microwave)

Mine oozed out a little bit while cooking in the microwave… but no harm done.



MC Cupcake 4


Dust with icing sugar or serve better with some sauce, custard or ice cream on a side.


MC Cupcake 1


Some ways to serve this:

Serve warm with Ice Cream

Serve topped with some sauce – fudge, chocolate, caramel, compotes, anything you fancy

Cut into thick cookie circles, soak it with orange liquor or rum (any booze or if you do not do booze use some kind of juice), layer it with whipped cream & chocolate shavings, fresh berries or fruity syrup/compotes – this is my favorite!! It is quick & makes a wonderfully elegant dessert!

Sending the cup cake to Microwave Potluck Party, hosted by Srivalli herself at Cooking 4 all Seasons.




Related Posts:

Melon Boats

Fruit, Berry Spoon Cake

Chocolate Chip Ginger Cookies


Author:
Filed Under: Cakes, Cookies, Muffins etc, Desserts & Sweets
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117 thoughts on “Microwave Cupcake”

  • Soma,what a fine morning to witness such a cute wonder..!! loved the idea and its so comfortable an idea to see..would love to do this asap..great pictures..Thanks..

  • I had tried a microwave brownie long back..now this looks cute in the cup..n girlie I know u took small cup to make it ooze out..aesthetic pic sense eh..chori pakad gayi..lol..nyhow ur kids are lucky to have a mom like u..:)

  • I love LOVE love the first pic..truly tempting..:).I started my baking adventures by baking in the MW,but havent tried this wonder cake..should try it..soon..:)

  • Love the recipe,perfect for me especially when I back to College & have no time to make dessert 🙂
    Thank you for sharing.

  • Soma,jus made this..Dont have to say how cute it is..Bad luck that i lost my cam..mine didnt spill and is in a funny shape and my daughter have kept it on the table to jus see and enjoy..!! lol.Soma,this is cheating was a poke on my brain..See what all cheating am goin to do with this..thank you sooooo much..

  • wow!! soma ye cup cake look pretty 🙂 i don usually use my microwave oven to bake any cakes. but i shud give a try to bake some cute cup cake like these next time 🙂
    cheers!!

  • Ooooo that looks soooo good Soma! love the second last click! i havent baked anything in micro as yet , always thought wud never work out…i m so gonna try this 🙂

  • Very interesting. I’ve seen this before and though it sounds very easy to make, I haven’t had the courage to try it. LOL.

  • Absolutely droolworthy,Soma.Love the way yu used the mw.I too have plans for a cake .the cup cakes are perfect.The mw items are always slightly drier than the normal oven counterparts

  • This is calling out to me insistently – I saw this on another blog and promised myself I’d try it. Didn’t.

    I’ll probably do it at least to dredge the top with sugar, with the little ‘dredger’ I treated myself to at a kitchenware store on my recent trip!!!

  • Soma ,Im supposed to be on a healthy diet,revamping my eating habits and pantry .. and just like the espresso..which I never gave up , I am thinking of making it after lunch today ! What the heck , today is friday and I deserve a treat ! 🙂

    Dee, a bite won’t hurt:-D

  • I’ve just made this for my sister and it does work! Wonderfully, actually .. it’s not the best cake ever, and if you don’t eat it straight away it will get a bit on the tough and chewey side. Other than that though, it’s perfect for a quick chocolate fix 😉

  • Soma, I’ve made this too- well not this recipe, but one from my folder of bookmarked recipes. It is good when you need something sweet for a quick fix. The texture of the cup cake though is nothing like that of one baked in the oven and it’s a little too dry. But since it’s something that can be put together in a jiffy, I’m willing to ignore that little fact. 😀
    As always, lovely pics!

    I so agree with you. But it does satisfy sudden cravings, & my kids had it with Vanilla ice cream & were pretty happy with it. it does work really well when you do something with it.. as i have mentioned in the post.. the last one. it soaks up really well becoz lf the spongy texture. My next experiment will be to see if i can figure out to make it a little bit more moist.

  • Your recipes seem quite simple to make
    Lovely way of serving the cake to guests ,each having their own bowl..that too in minutes..cool.

  • AH-MA-ZING. That’s really all that needs to be said. I’ve struggled with making cake lately, but this looks like something I could easily do. Thank you 🙂

  • WOW is the word for this recipe!!
    I am so making it soon..hopefully today. my kids would love some quick fixes like this!

  • The kiddo loved this Soma, it was a bit chewy(as some readers have said) but 5 year olds don’t mind such petty discomforts ;-). She loved it with ice cream
    Now I am forwarding it to a colleague.

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  • Wow, now that’s one chocolate cake I would be more than glad to eat, oven baked or not! I bet your kids enjoyed it to the last crumb. Good pics!

  • My kids and hubby loved this Soma. Pretty hollow and dense, but still was a tasty chocolate cake. Kids loved to watch it rising in the MW. Indeed a 2 minute wonder!
    Will be making this more often.

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  • Lovely cake, I will definitly try this out for my son.
    I liked your site and also wanted to add that the “About” section is wonderful- it is one of the best I have come across 🙂
    I am new to the cooking world- as you will see I have not put up any sweet/baking product on my blog- have not really tried any of those. Hope to take a clue from here and try- will keep you posted.

    Thank you very much Aparna:-)

  • I love these cakes but you gotta eat ’em right away. They’re not that great cold. have you tried making it in a bigger bowl do it serves more people? just wondering if it would work.

  • When I first saw this recipe, I was really intrigued. Not only did it look cute, but it was a quick chocolate treat. However, when I tried the recipe I was sorely disappointed. The flavor was bland and the texture (which I must say you did mention above) was less than appealing. I even tried it a second time, tweaking the amount of sugar and a few other things and came out with only a slightly better product. I’d rather go to the effort required to make Wacky Cake or cookies.

    On the bright side, it is still a cute idea, and perhaps I’ll pull it out again in the future and tweak it some more to see if I can at least improve the flavor. Thanks for the idea!


    I do agree with you that it does not measure up to a “real” cake, BUT this is 5 min compared to a few hours of effort. We rarely have this cake by itself. What works best for us is to soak it up with some liqueur (Some juice for kids) and then layer it with cream and fruits . (we mostly do it like a black forest/chocolate cake with cherries and cream). The texture is dry and it soaks up juice/or liquid very well like a sponge cake. Ad they make real good small individual cakes.

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  • Thanks for your response. If you are interested I posted a recipe to my blog today that is a microwave cake more along the lines of what I was looking for in terms of texture and taste.

  • THIS IS SOO GOOD! and fast to make! – A KEEPER! 🙂
    i substituted the oil with butter. melted the butter and threw in abt 2stablespoons of chocolate chips (and allowed it to melt in the butter) to make the cake more chocolatey taste, as i felt cocoa powder alone wldnt have a strong enough chocolate taste!

    Only regret was that i think it was over-cooked and it wasnt as moist as i wanted it to be! Probably cause my microwave’s temp is very high. would reduce it to 1.5-2 mins next time.

    This cake is kind of dry, just to let you know, unlike the regular baked cake. That is the reason I have given options to soak it or side it with something. I love the changes you have made!

  • Wow!!! I just read this 10 mins ago, made it and woke my teenagers up (so excited) and we all had cake! Have got to make this for DH tomorrow, but has a real sweet tooth, so will increase the sugar. Great stuff this.

    Happy that you liked it 😉 It is not so perfect, but worth the 3 minutes!! great for kids.

    Cheers
    Soma

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  • Love this – i know what you mean by the ‘i want cake now’ feeling – not just kids – we adults are attacked by such feelings once in a while and I’ve tried to put a combo of ingredients and bake in a tiny glass bowl – but your results look smashing-bookmarking this for an emergency!

  • Love this! Yours turned out a bajillion times prettier than mine — I can’t even begin to describe my attempt. Hope you don’t mind if I reblog this here!

  • I just made it for me and my 3 boys. I substituted the sugar with strawberry jam, and it came out wonderfully. to make it 4x, I used 2 eggs in stead of 4 and added another 30 mls of milk to make consistency a little more runny. Brilliant.

  • I totally just tried this! Does not take long at all. This is perfect if you need a quick chocolate fix. The end result however not good. The picture shows the cupcake leaked, Mine actually jumped out of my mug haha. It was huge and right next to the mug.
    The taste isn’t very good. Its chewy, chewy and chewy. Very dense tasting. Not really like chocolate.


    If you have read thru the post, you would notice that I did mention about the texture of the cake. It is a 2 minute cake instead of a 1hour + it takes to bake a real cake. I have also mentioned the ways to enjoy this cake which allows you to forgive the texture and yet have a pretty decent quick dessert. Soaking it some liquid and layering it with fruit and cream is our favorite way to have it.

    I have made it a few times and never had the it pop out of the cup. May be you should use a bigger cup?

  • What a great, convenient and quick trick to have in your back pocket! I love to surprise my kids with stuff like this. I made it for my son last night and he thought was the most amazing thing ever! He loved it was in a coffee mug because it made him feel like a big boy. Just today he asked me if we could make “magic cake” again. I work with Better Recipes so I am always reviewing recipes and I have to say that Easy Recipes are my favorite. Any thing that can be thrown together quickly and taste good is gold in my book!

  • great post, really interesting, looks so yummy.. I really like it. Thanks for posting. I’ll let my wife check this site as I want her to try this for me. 🙂

  • Wow! What a surprise. This recipe is delicious and surprisingly versatile! I just made a batch of these cakes using a pumpkin spice blend in place of cinnamon, and little tea pots in place of teacups / mugs! I garnished the cakes with a scoop of french vanilla ice cream and icing sugar. Also, I was surprised to find out I was out of oil, so I used melted butter instead. Talk about a hit! Thanks for the wonderful recipe. 🙂

  • As another reviewer stated, this recipe is delicious and versatile! I have substituted almond extract for vanilla, which was delicious. But, my favorite is substituting 2 Tbs of coffee for the milk – delicious. Then I topped the cupcake with a quick icing made from peanut butter (softened in microwave), powder sugar and milk. What a treat!

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  • Wow!!!!!! I made this yesterday and posted it to fb, and my mom asked where hers was!! I eat these FOR BREAKFAST!!! It is so good and with cookies and cream ice cream!!!!!!!! DIVINE

  • Just tried this – a fun experiment but ours ended up being really dry. Not sure if I would cut the time or what, but fun to try.

    🙂 I agree it is really dry. It is not just yours that turned out that way. If you see, I have mentioned in the Notes that this is not “moist and dense” like a regular cake. And at the end of the recipe I have some ideas to serve this. The texture is really spongy and it takes to soaking very very well.. my kids soak theirs with orange juice or even diluted chocolate syrup and serve with cool whip or ice cream or even layered with fruits and cream sometimes. Do try the soaking with some liquid and you won’t regret. :).. you could play with the amount of time.. but it will still be drier than a regular cake.

  • it was ok i think it had too much cocoa powder and it was very dry

    I have mentioned many times that the cake is dry. You cannot expect bakery style cakes in 2 minutes. Adjust cocoa and sugar to your taste.

  • It looked like I took a dump in a mug and it tasted even worse. What is wrong with you. Your poor children.

    haha!! looks like our tastes differ a lot. With 2 min and in the microwave, I hope you did not expect a miracle, did you?! My children do not consider themselves “poor” at all! In fact they have a lot of fun doing their own and even layered mini cakes by soaking them in juice and filling with whipped cream and fruits.

  • I made this recipe EXACTLY except without vanilla and it turned out to be awful. Wasn’t sweet enough, weird raw egg flying everywhere. I think where i went wrong was i shouldn’t have added the egg yolk, just the whites. It would’ve been helpful to involve that in the recipe.

    How did you have egg yolk flying everywhere??! My 10 year old makes this cake every few wks all by herself. The ingredients are supposed to be whisked in together before cooking it and it says that in the recipe. The sugar also mentions “more or less” which means it needs to be adjusted to taste. Sorry about that!

  • Just found your recipe for microwave cupcake. I had another recipe and lost it and just did a search. Made this recipe with 2 changes. I added an extra tablespoon of sugar, reduced the powdered cocoa to only 1 tablespoon and used unsweetened applesauce instead of the oil. Really moist and tasty. Thanks.

  • Hi…..
    I was searching for a perfect recipi for my first microwave oven baked food and guess what I found it I’m gonna make this tomorrow…
    loved it…..

  • I tried it and it came out a little dry. Any suggestions?

    It does turn out dry. Try using jam or applesauce. Or read the tips of serving where I have mentioned how to soak it before you serve.

  • Mine turned out looking really nice! I made two, burnt one (by using your time, so the next time I just lowered it) But I wish it had a bit more of a chocolate taste to it. Right now it tasted like chocolate zucchini bread (is that how you spell it? Idk, I am only twelve ) which if you have ever had it tastes good, but to me not great.
    Anyways my question is do you have any suggestions on how to make it more chocolatey? I thought about cutting up little chocolate chunks and melting them down and mixing it into the mix, but i do not know how much I should put in there…

    I know it turns out a bit dry. My daughter is 10 and what she does is break chocolates pieces (like hersheys) in tiny pieces and mix with the batter. They melt faster than chocolate chips. Or she will soak it with Hersheys Syrup. Or mix in more cocoa powder. Or you could do both.. more cocoa powder + broken chocolate.
    Thanks for trying it out and thanks for writing back.. you are sweet and I do like zucchini bread! ;D I have a recipe for it and you won’t even know you have the greens in there! My girls did not find out 🙂

  • it is great . making it.. this is my first time making a c cake in micro …it just took me a min, as it is samsung latest version one . i got exactly the same way as in the picture…. thanks a lottttttttttttttttttt

  • I put mine in a metal cup whilst microwaveing…. Not the best thing i have ever done

  • hi i tried something similar to this but it came out very hard it stayed soft for sometime and later became hard like a rock. what do i do, all i know is i didnot add baking powder and milk.. is that the reason

    The cake needs baking powder as a leavening to rise in that couple of minutes and it needs the milk/juice as the little liquid too.. It won’t come out right without these.. as it is the cake is dry and omitting these will make it worse.

  • Your recipe is amazing but the cupcakes keep going chewy. How will I stop this from happening???

    It is supposed to be consumed right away. If left to sit after making it, it will get dry. Use some liquid to soak it up. It works good. I have some ideas written up in the post.

  • The best microwave cupcake I have ever eaten!!!Thank you

    Thanks for trying.

  • Thank you so much for this but i have a question when you add the eggs is it only the whites? or also the yolk? please answer me 🙂 i can’t find your email in this page but if you have a website or any other sites please inform me 🙂 because we really need this for my school. this has very been helpful! and lots and lots of thanks to you i hope this will not be ignored
    Love lots xoxo 🙂

    I use the whole egg (white + yolk) but use a small one. I am not sure how you are going to do it for the school, but a little warning here that the cake is on the dry side and it not consumed immediately and if you are not soaking it with some liquid, it will further dry out. So please keep that in mind. Hope this helps and good luck!

    My email is recipeforlove.contact@gmail.com.

    Regards
    Soma

  • i tried this it came out well and liked by everyone..just wanted to know can caster sugar be replaced by sugarfree?? for diabetic people??

    thanks
    Anita

  • I just finished eating this…chocolate still on my greedy little fingers, and I’ve realized something:
    Because I crave chocolaty desserts nightly, and the fact that I always have these ingredients on hand… this is a very dangerous recipe! It absolutely did the trick with a little Nutella and some ice cream. My only complaint is that it might be a little *too* easy 😉

  • This was so YUMMY! Added chocolate chips to mine [Of course,they were heavier and sank to the bottom] but who cares, just chocolaty goodness. And SO EASY. thanks!

  • I tripled the recipe, minus one egg and added chocolate chips, sprayed the mugs, and made 4 cakes b/c I had small mugs and I have three kids. I ran a knife around the edge and then inverted them on a plate. And to my surprise,there was this yummy chocolate sauce! I am planning on taking this recipe with me when my DH and I run away for our anniversary! It turned out moist and the kids went nuts over it! Perfect for hot summer day when you need a cake fix and you don’t want to heat up the oven.

  • I tried this recipe twice. First time it does came out a little dry but I topped it with marshmallow creme and it was actually pretty good. The second time I put a little more milk and baking soda, came out pretty much like a pancake in a cup. It is a really good idea and its really yummy but its just not like a real cupcake. I don’t really care anyways, as long as it’s sweet and chocolaty, I’ll eat it.

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  • I used a thawed frozen bannana instead of an egg(I’m a poor college student so my eggs all go straight to a meal) and molasses instead of sugar cooked it for a little bit less time and it turned out much more moist than it does with an egg. Either way its a great quick chocolate fix!

    side note I love how many recipes you have that can be made cheap, by just swapping ingredients! 🙂

  • Hey hunno just tried this out absolutely top notch well bloody done our oven just gave out so needed a solution and here you come to the rescue wish you were our mum, obviously our cake nearly toppled over as it was cooking we may need to use a bigger mug next but overall 10/10 for effort THANKYOU

  • I put some chocolate chips on it as soon as I took it out. While the cake cooled and the chips melted. It tasted good with the melted chocolate seeping into the cake and down the sides. Hit the spot

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  • Tried this it was soooo dry I’ve never seen a cake so dry. Maybe reducing the time would help? I will stick to the oven!

  • Tried it and loved it! Just like you rightly pointed it out, it would be insane to compare something that you can put into the microwave and get it ready in 2 minutes to those cakes selling in the pastry shop. Nonetheless, if anyone knows what the best microwave mug cake supposed to be like, this recipe is among the best.

  • Pretty nice post. I simply stumbled upon your weblog and wished to mention that I’ve really loved surfing around your blog posts. After all I’ll be subscribing for your rss feed and I’m hoping you write once more very soon!

  • I had never heard of a cupcake in a mug, but it looks so yummy I can’t wait to try it!

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