Chocorgasm

This will just be a Friday quickie, no profound thoughts, just a chocorgasm. I had to share this idea as I'm so excited about it. Once in a while you just run into something which is pure genius. I happened upon this recipe today at work (I just had a quick peak during a really boring meeting, I usually don't browse baking blogs at work, I promise!! but if I hear the word coalescence one more time today I will hurt myself or someone else very badly). For the rest of the day, all I could think about was to get home and try this out. I mean, this is just the most amazing thing. It's a chocolate cake, made in the microwave in two minutes, all from ingredients you have at home. Well, at least almost, as I don't usually keep chocolate at home for safety reasons. Apart from that, I still think whoever came up with this idea should get the culinary equivalent of the Nobel prize.  


I picked up this recipe from a blog called Completely Delicious, and just did a few very minor tweaks. I absolutely love that blog, the recipes on there are amazing, and the pictures are very beautiful. I warmly suggest you go and have a browse! The pictures on there are much better than mine, I should have made the cake in a white mug, not one which was dark inside, as it doesn't do any justice to the beautiful cake. 


And finally I'm done with my rant. I won't keep you from the actual recipe any longer. Oh and the original recipe says serves 1 or 2. Two, my ash... This is the perfect decadent treat for a single woman slouching on her sofa on a Friday night!


Two minute microwave chocolate cake:

3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp milk (original recipe says whole, but I used semi skimmed)
1 large egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract (I might have splashed in a bit more...)
1 tsp chocolate, orange and cinnamon balsamic
3 tbsp (20 grams) all-purpose flour
4 tbsp (45 grams) sugar
2 tbsp (10 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
Pinch salt
3 tbsp (30 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chips (I might have accidentally poured in a bit more... whoopsie)

One serving contais about as many calories as are needed to feed a family of six for a week... 

The howto:
In a mug, melt the butter in the microwave. Then add milk, egg, vanilla extract and balsamic and mix. Add flour, sugar, cocoa, and salt and mix until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Bake in the microwave on high for two minutes. Serve immediately. I happened to have clotted cream (a thing of pure beauty I had never encountered before moving to the UK), so I served the cake with a big dollop of clotted cream. Ice cream would work too. Do be careful when eating it, as it's really hot, particularly the melted choccy goo at the bottom!

Step 1: using a spoon, mix all ingredients in a mug

Step 2: pop in the microwave for 2 minutes

The verdict:
No matter how genius I thought this was when I read the recipe, when I had mixed everything together in the mug and put it all in the microwave, I thought this would not work, it would all come out a hot liquid, possibly somewhat burned, mess. Well, it didn't. It came out a chocolate cake. With the chocolate chips melted into a goo at the bottom, as promised in the original recipe. 

It's not the best chocolate cake I have had in my life, but it is damn good. And given that it takes about a minute to make and two to bake, there is no other cake that gives such a good taste for time ratio. It also is quite a big serving, so unless you are a seasoned chocoholic like me, you might want to share it with someone. I'm giddy like a kid over this genius idea. I would jump up and down from excitement if I wasn't absolutely knocked out after eating the whole thing in one go. I read somewhere that snakes will spend a week on digesting a meal. Let's just say I know exactly how they feel!

So you might wonder about the chocolate, orange and cinnamon balsamic in there. If you don't happen to have any laying around (although, why wouldn't you?), you can just leave it out, it's not a part of the original recipe. I was actually going to add some orange flavouring as I think the combo of chocolate and orange is heavenly. But I couldn't find my orange flavouring, or maybe I don't have any. And despite planning to buy some orange liqueur for ages, I haven't gotten around to that either. But last weekend when I was in York, I found this adorable little store called The Hairy Fig, which has a wide selection of flavoured oils, balsamico and vinegars. And of course I couldn't resist the choco-orange balsamic, although I'm not quite sure how to use it. I think it worked very well here, although the dark chocolate goo at the bottom was the most overpowering flavour of the cake.

This will definitely have to go on the "absolutely forbidden" list, it's too good, too easy, too quick, and above everything else, has about as many calories as I usually eat in a day... But I just can't get over how genius it is! (I apologize for the profuse use of the word genius in this post, I blame it on the sugar coma and the fact that this is a *chocolate cake* which takes *two minutes* to make!)