Rummy Microwave Chocolate Mug Cake

I found a new food & fitness blog (The Fitnessista) today. As I perused her recipes, I came across her microwave chocolate mug cake. I drooled. This was perfect. I had been craving chocolate cake but didn’t want to bake an entire cake. For one, I would end up eating much too much of it and two, I wanted to bake this Guiness Chocolate Cake but I didn’t have any sour cream.

I started comparing her cake to others that I found online. They were all pretty similar except that most of them required an egg while hers is a vegan version that uses flax meal instead. This was actually perfect for me. I didn’t actually want to use an entire egg in this cake. Your average cake calls for about 3 cups of flour and maybe 3 eggs. This cake called for approximately 1/4 cup of flour. 1 egg to 1/4 cup of flour just seemed like too high a ratio to me. I certainly didn’t want my cake tasting eggy.

I also found that some recipes used baking powder, while others did not. Gina (at the Fitnessista) uses baking soda. It’s a tiny amount of each and baking powder vs. baking soda should not make a big difference in this case. Baking soda would react with the chocolate and baking powder would work alone. I liked the fact that Gina added some protein powder. This made me trick myself into believing it was healthy. And let’s be honest; it really isn’t unhealthy. There isn’t that much flour in it. If you leave out the sugar (as I accidentally did) or use a low calorie sweetener then it’s even better.

I also found that some recipes used more oil than Gina’s. She suggested 1/2T of oil while others suggested 3T. The oil is to keep the cake moist. Gina suggested using chocolate chips to help with this. Below I am posting how I made mine but be sure to check out Gina’s and this one from O My Family (another favourite blog of mine).

Rummy Microwave Chocolate Mug Cake (adapted from Fitnessista)

Ingredients

2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon protein powder
1 tablespoon cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s Special Dark. Other recipes called for 2T but I found it was chocolatey enough without the extra. Maybe this was because I was using the dark cocoa).
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
A pinch of salt
1 flax egg (1 tablespoon of flax meal + 3 tablespoons of water)
2 tablespoons of rum cream (the recipes call for milk but I hardly ever have milk. Add a tsp of water if it’s really thick rum cream)
1/2T of oil (increase to 2T-3T if you're not using chips and Nutella)
1 tablespoon chocolate chips (see notes below)
2 teaspoons Nutella (see notes below)
Sugar to taste (other recipes suggest 3 tablespoons. I actually forgot to add sugar but I ate it with some rum glaze that I had in the fridge so the sugar wasn't needed.)
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla (yup, I forgot; but when there’s rum, you don’t need vanilla. Right?)

Directions

1. Grease or spray a mug with cooking spray.
2. Mix the dry ingredients.
3. Add the wet ingredients. Mix well.
4. Add a little sugar (maybe start with a tablespoon) then taste. Sweet enough?
5. Microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds (see notes below).
6. Invert over a plate and let cool for a few minutes. It should slide out of mug if your mug was greased well.
7. Serve it with some chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, rum glaze or whipped cream.
8. Enjoy!

Notes

1. Do not fill the cup more than about halfway. The cake will rise as it’s microwaved and you don’t want it to spill over and waste any of that chocolatey goodness.
2. Microwave ovens vary. You have to be careful not to overcook this or you may end up with rubbery, inedible cake. I’ve seen several variations in the amount of time you should use. Mine was done in 1 minute and 30 seconds. The top was dry and the sides still looked a tad wet. If yours is still completely wet, add 30 more seconds then check. Maybe I could have added 30 more seconds so it would be completely dry but I am glad I didn't. The inside was dry enough. Maybe it takes longer if you use an egg? I really don’t know. Thickness of mug may also be a factor.
3. Nutella and chocolate chips are optional. I think you may want to increase the oil if you leave these out as I think these help the cake to be moist.