Mug shots



The past few days have been a whirlwind of laughs, snow, dogs, food and music. After almost 2 and a half years, N, S, A and I reunited and for 48 hours we relived the lovely days of our undergrad youth. The only thing missing was dear H, who was held up by the nasty ice storm that ravaged parts of southern and eastern Canada over the weekend. I guess that means that...an encore is in order! Summer '14, ladies?

A was the last to leave, and we ended an epic few days of eating gourmet home-cooked food with an experiment that involved Nutella, cocoa and a microwave. That's right guys: we attempted, and succeeded at making, a Nutella chocolate microwave mug cake. The cake batter itself was simple to prepare -a few basic ingredients mixed together in a large, attractive mug  - but the microwaving part was the wild card. We were very careful and deliberate with our experimentation, having heard urban myths of mug cake explosion disasters, but our cake was splendid, a dense, warm, and gooey mountain with a deep Nutella flavor and an impromptu 'ganache' of pleasantly under-baked chocolaty batter.


Nutella chocolate mug cake
Adapted from here

Ingredients

- 3 tbsp Nutella
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp milk
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- icing sugar, to garnish

Total time: 5 minutes
Yields: 1 large mug of cakey goodness

1. In a large mug, mix together egg, Nutella, milk and vegetable oil. Sift in flour and cocoa powder and mix well; add sugar and baking powder, and mix just until there are no more lumps.

2. Microwave on high for 1 min and 30 seconds. Remove and insert a tester; if the cake batter is liquidy, microwave for an additional 20 seconds, and repeat in 20 second intervals until the cake is fully baked, but do not exceed 2 min and 30 seconds (the cake will dry out!).

3. Dust with icing sugar and serve with ice cream or without, in mug or on a plate, alone or with a friend.


Happy holidays!

P/C: A

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