I purposely waited until after April 1st to post this little Disco Party of a Chocolate Microwave Mug Cake, because I didn’t think you’d take it seriously enough. It’s very serious! 😉
The recipe was inspired by one of the most celebrated pastry chefs of our time, Christina Tosi. Her new Milk Bar book, all about cake
Cake truffles are a catering trick we used to do in professional kitchens to use up the cake scraps and make truffles that were quick and delicious. Christina has lots of fun flavors. I generally go for a recipe in a new book that introduces a technique I’ve not tried before, so baking in a microwave seemed like a good challenge.
I was late to buying a microwave, but my boys begged me for it. Now, I am the only one in the house that uses it, mostly to melt butter, but that keeps it pretty busy. Well, as you’ll see from my instagram video, I mastered it.
It’s a cheeky recipe, but I promise, it is one of those cakes you’ll rely on when you need to indulge at midnight. Just you, Donna Summer and a crazy-satisfying mug of chocolate cake. I added Caramel-Peanut ice cream to the top, because who eats chocolate cake at midnight without ice cream?
Watch me make this cake and disco my hair in my instagram video.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 tbsp (40g) vegetable oil
- 2 1/2 tbsp (40g) buttermilk
- 2 tbsp (50g) hot coffee
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup (100g) sugar
- 1/3 cup (45g) cake flour
- 3 tbsp (25g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp chopped Heath bar pieces optional
For Serving
- ice cream*
Instructions
- In a large bowl whisk together the oil, buttermilk, coffee, vanilla, and egg.
- In another bowl sift together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Whisk the dry ingredients into the egg mixture until smooth. Stir in the chopped Heath bar, if using.
- Divide the batter into two 12-ounce mugs. Microwave the cakes, one at a time, for about 45 seconds or until they are almost set on the top. They are meant to have just a bit of molten cake batter left on the top, but if they are still liquid, return to microwave for another 10 seconds. The timing will vary slightly, depending on the power of your microwave.
- Serve immediately with ice cream.
Notes
by David Lebovitz and added 1/3 cup caramel sauce and 1/4 cup chopped peanuts to it.
Oven instructions: You can bake these in your regular oven at 375°F for about 10-15 minutes (this will depend on the shape of your cup and how deep the batter is in it. It is done when a tester comes out with wet crumbs clinging to it. You don’t want the tester to be clean.)
Great recipe! Can this be done without the coffee? If so, do I need to sub it with something else? Thanks!
Hi Kris! The coffee is in the recipe to add some acid and balance the flavor, but you don’t taste it. To replace it, Zoë suggests Coke or Stout, or you could simply add more buttermilk. Enjoy!
Can I use all purpose flour in this recipe? I don’t have any cake flour.
Hi Kathy, it should work, just be sure to decrease the all-purpose flour by about 1 tbsp. for this recipe. Enjoy!
Would I be able to use 1:1 gluten free flour?
Substitute yogurt for buttermilk?
Hi Leslie, yes to both! Happy baking!
Just made this chocolate microwave mug cake, and it was delicious, even without the ice cream or whipped cream, neither of which I had in the house. I had made a microwave mug cake once before and threw it out! I told my husband, “I trust Zoe”, so I mixed the ingredients before dinner so we could have the cakes as dessert. When we finished dinner, I combined the dry and wet ingredients, put it in the cups, and into the microwave. 45 seconds later we had this delicious chocolate cake, just as described by Zoe. dThanks for this new instant dessert.
Delicious, chocolaty and rich. The portion size was a little big for me, but it was so yummy I finished it anyway.
This was so yummy. Added 1 T of water and 1 T of buttermilk instead of coffee and pulled out 1T of flour because I was using all purpose. . Delicious!!