Hellobee

As parents, we are all usually looking for a quick solution to everything. One of my requirements is the ability to have a quick dessert. I usually have a stash of chocolate in my fridge for a quick sweet bite after dinner, but sometimes you really just want a cake or a cookie. I really hate buying big cakes and packaged cookies just don’t do it for me. I do love to bake, but I’m the only sweets person in my household (even my toddler is not all that excited by baked goods, the weirdo), so making a full batch of something isn’t really worth the time and energy. That’s where mug cakes come in as the most perfect solution.

I was first introduced to a mug cake by my best friend, ages before I had kids. It was a pretty basic recipe that combined eggs, sugar, milk, flour and cocoa powder in a mug. Stir it all together and nuke it for about a minute and voila, cake! Mug cakes are not the quality of Ruth Reichl’s famous chocolate cake (which you really should make once – it is absolutely divine and worth every minute of effort), but they are a great fix for when you just really want something cakey and quickly. These are some of my favorite mug cake recipes from around the Internet.

Raspberry/sour cream cake. I love the lightness of this cake. It works well with blueberries and strawberries and pretty much any fruit.

Caffe Mocha cake. This one is one of my favorites – a chocolate cake with a fantastic coffee flavor if you use espresso powder as instructed. It also works really well if you substitute the espresso for cocoa powder. I use both unsweetened Dutch cocoa and a basic baking cocoa powder for a great chocolatey taste.

Basic chocolate cake. This one is courtesy of Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman. It’s a classic chocolate cake, perfect for a quick chocolate fix. I usually toss a handful of chocolate chips into mine as well.

Snickerdoodle cake. This one is arguably my favorite one of the ones I make. It tastes exactly like a snickerdoodle, especially if you go generously on the sugar/cinnamon mixture. When I’m feeling lazy I’ll skip the layering and just mix the sugar and cinnamon into the batter, which works just as well. I often add chocolate chips to this one as well because, well, chocolate.

Pumpkin spice cake. A lot of recipes that include pumpkin puree don’t require the full can of it, so I often find myself with leftover pumpkin puree in the fall especially. Enter this awesome little cake that you can make every day until the puree is gone!

Chocolate chip cookie in a mug. Sometimes you really just need to have a chocolate chip cookie. There’s a five minute version of that too!

Almond butter cake. I lost all taste for peanut butter when I was pregnant (thanks, kid) so almond butter is my go to these days. I buy the Maranatha Crunchy almond butter, because I love texture, but any almond butter would do here (and peanut butter might work well too, so feel free to experiment!). The cake comes out light and not overly sweet, which makes it a great dessert just by itself, or with – wait for it – chocolate.

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There are a ton of ideas online, if you Google “mug cake,” and if you’re more inclined toward cookbooks, there’s one for mug cakes too! I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to collecting these recipes, and I love to try them out. A few tips and tricks that have been helpful for me:

1. Play around with the timing for the microwaving. The recipe directions aren’t always the best for your specific microwave, so I recommend starting at about 1 minute for most mug cakes and going in 20 second increments to get it to a consistency you want. The longer you nuke it, the less cakey it becomes, and there is definitely a danger of making it too tough and rubbery.
2. Be mindful of your additions. I love to add things to my mug cakes, but not every mix in is friendly to the process. Frozen fruit can become liquidy and require more cooking time. Fresh fruit will usually sink to the bottom of the batter, so while tasty, heavier fruit like strawberries may only be found toward the end. Similarly chocolate chips sink into the batter as well, so be mindful of cooking time so that they don’t burn on the bottom.

Enjoy and share any favorite quick dessert recipes you have in your repertoire!