A Mug Cake is the perfect warm and indulgent last minute dessert. This Mug Cake version is extra special as it has a delicious surprise waiting for you at the bottom of the cup.
Even though this cake is served in a small cup, I find it a large portion. I would suggest you find your favourite person and share! 🙂
Shopping for the best ingredients
A quality Dark Chocolate should contain cocoa butter and not the cheap and nasty “vegetable oil”. The term “vegetable oil” may sound healthy, but the processing it undergoes makes it extremely unhealthy for the body.
Almond Meal is simply ground up raw almonds, whereas Almond Flour is usually ground up blanched almonds. The most economical way is to blitz up your own almonds in a blender or food processor. Both almond meal and almond flour work in this recipe.
Raw Cacao is simply cocoa powder that hasn’t been roasted. As I am trying to keep food as real as possible without going overboard, I figure I should at least start with as raw as possible.
Extra Virgin Oils are extracted by cold pressing the oil out. These unheated oils are by far the best for your body and brain. Did you know that the brain is at least 60% fat?
For the same reason I buy Raw Honey that hasn’t been heat treated. I realise that it gets heated when I bake with it, but I don’t want the hassle of keeping track of two different jars of honey.
Maple Syrup should say “pure” or “100%” maple syrup. The cheaper versions usually have an added sugar syrup of some kind.
Edible Flowers have become my latest go-to for decorating food. I have planted violets, marigolds and dianthus in my garden for this very purpose. Lavender, pansies, roses and nasturtiums are some other possibilities. Commercially grown flowers are sprayed with pesticides so home grown would definitely be the best option here.
Cooking Tips
If I make this mug cake using olive oil, I include the cinnamon to mask the stronger flavour. Macadamia nut oil is another alternative, yet it is the most expensive.
A mug cake is traditionally prepared in a Microwave oven though I know a lot of people are now avoiding their use. In fact, when I was living in Austria 20 years ago, no one I knew had one because there was a general opinion that they weren’t safe. At that stage they had been in use for at least 20 years.
I remember learning in my Food Science class the basic theory of how a microwaving food works. It went something like this – a water molecule has a positive charge on one end and a negative charge on the other. When a magnetic field is applied, as in microwaves, the water molecules spin or vibrate. The friction between the vibrating molecules causes heat, and this heat cooks the food.
This sounds straightforward enough, however there is concern as to how microwaving may alter the food’s chemical structure.
If using a microwave, these are some of the FDA guidelines for its safe use –
- Use microwave safe cookware specially manufactured for use in the microwave oven.
- Don’t operate a microwave oven if the door does not close firmly or is bent, warped, or otherwise damaged.
- Stop using a microwave oven if it continues to operate with the door open.
- As an added safety precaution, don’t stand directly against an oven (and don’t allow children to do this) for long periods of time while it is operating.
