Microwave cake
Last week I saw on Midtown Lunch about a cake you make in the microwave. It sounds pretty nutty. Who makes cakes in microwaves? Why would you even want to do it in the first place? I'm not sure who came up with this, but it just sounded like a great thing to try at home. What you see here was actually the second attempt. The first attempt was dry and not so good. This one was uh... slightly better.
The recipe is simple enough, some flour, cocoa powder, sugar, milk, butter, egg, and the microwave. The first time, I mixed everything together in an oversized coffee mug, stuck it in the microwave for three minutes, and the result was a poofy and dry mess. It was still edible but the second iteration was done with some updates.
When you eat this cake, the first thing you realize that it's quite dense. It's not your pillowy soft type of cake. Since it was dense and dry, I figured it would be a good idea to reduce cooking time and perhaps reduce dryness. The switch from a 3 minute nuke time to 2.5 minute nuke time helped matters a little.
The second time around I also separated the egg yolk from the egg white and beat the hell out of the egg whites. Since I hand whisked it, the result wasn't super great. I'm not sure it made a difference or if it was the reduced cooking time. Either way, the second iteration of the cake was much better than the first.
But you know how there's commercials now about 'drinkability' and we all know that the commercial is bullshit? Well, if there was a eatability, this cake would be sorta in the middle. It's not the greatest thing in the world, but I don't make cake. So for non-cake makers who still want cake and don't want to buy cake? This is the thing for you!
Honestly, I think it's possible to make this taste even better. It just takes some special tinkering. But unlike the suggestion of Zach at Midtown Lunch, I really don't think it would be possible to do this at your work place and have it taste good... haha. You can try though...
(I invite you to follow me on Twitter so you can get more of my non-sense in another medium.)
omg i love microwave cake! i never make it from scratch though hehe. i buy the mix from japanese supermarkets (small box with a photo of a cake in mug with a mini microwave next to it)...and make it that way...could it be any more convenient? ;)
Kathy
January 12, 2009 6:15 pm
maybe it needs bacon?
bionicgrrrl
January 12, 2009 10:38 pm
It's the microwave that's killing it. I don't think it should all be on high power. Doesn't Duncan Hines sell microwave desserts? I don't know how they taste. I didn't have a microwave for years, so I'm not in the habit of using one.
Blondie
January 13, 2009 11:12 am
@Kathy,
Really? they have the mix at Japanese supermarkets? Hmm... Now I'm super curious and have to go try one of those!
@bionicgrrrl,
Oh you're right! haha. Bacon and gravy.
@Blondie,
Duncan Hines has microwave desserts too? man, I've been living under a rock. Microwaves are a time saver, I love it. If you ever freeze foods, it's terrific. Also, if you put cooked rice in the fridge, the best way to heat it up is to steam it and that's what the microwave will do for ya.
Danny
January 13, 2009 5:02 pm
Hi! I read your post and I just couldn't leave you there without letting you know this.
Here in Sweden it's a quite popular baking a cake called "kladdkaka" (sticky cake). It´s almost like a brownie but stickier and gooeyer (do you understand my swenglish?) Most people bake it in the oven but you can also do it in the microwave.
So here's the recipe:
100 g butter
0.3 l sugar
2 eggs
0.15 l flour
4 tablespoons of cocoapowder
1 pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar
Mix all the ingredients. Butter a microwave-safe glass tin. Pour the mixture in the tin and bake in the microwave, full effect in two-minutes intervals. After every interval check how the cake is doing, and when it looks fine (approx 3-4 intervals), take it out!
(It is supposed to be sticky and it doesn't matter if you can't cut it into pieces without the cake floating toghether again!)
Serve with vanilla ice cream (my favorite) or whipped cream or whatever you like!
Julia (from sweden)
February 6, 2009 6:59 pm
I tried my first Micro-Waved cake yesterday but its so dry and little hard than conventional oven. I preapred a single cake mix but put it in two utensils. One in glass for M/W and other in steel for gas oven. Results are that i have almost finished up eating the ovenized cake , being so crispy and moisturized but the M/waved one is still; lying in the plate as it is hard and so dry.....Any suggestions how to make it look like ovenized cake.
Sunny
February 7, 2009 8:54 pm
@Julia,
That recipe looks pretty good. I have to go convert it into tablespoons so I know what's going on though! Thanks for the recipe!
@Sunny,
I think the thing about the cake is that you cannot over-microwave it. It's super easy to do that because we don't know how hot it gets in there. Try your luck with intervals... so instead of doing three minutes, try one minute at a time. And instead of high, you could try medium power. Other than that, maybe microwave cakes aren't for you... I might have really low standards for microwave cakes... haha. Good luck!
Danny
February 8, 2009 11:19 pm
wow!!:)i read the chocolate cake recipe and i loved it!!it was great;)
maryleah
March 3, 2009 10:46 am
INSTEAD OF COCOA POWDER WAHT CAN I USE ELSE? COULD SOMEONE TELL ME PLEASE .............................................
KATRINA K
December 27, 2009 8:32 am