The final week of single serve! I don’t know what it is about the final week of one of my nonsensical themed months, but they always make me a bit sad 🙁 . It’s amazing how attached one can get to a ridiculous gimmick in such a short span of time. There is no time for tears here though people. Be strong. Embrace another iconic Beyoncé mantra, and be the independent woman (or man) that you know you are inside. Stiff upper, fake it ’til you make it and all that jazz.
If your roommate was Sheldon à la Big Bang Theory, I’m sure you’d be offered a hot beverage right about now to help you deal with this horrible month-ending news of no more single serve. If you’re like me however, this is how you would feel about such a proposal:
Since I will now choose to take on the role of your virtual roommate and take you under my wing, I believe you will enjoy my offering much more than a simple mug of tea. Instead of filling said mug with a boring ol’ hot beverage (OK – side note? I actually super love tea and think that I’m personally responsible for keeping David’s Tea in business. So more than likely, I’d make you both things in our current scenario 🙂 ), let’s be extreme and fill that cup with warm, toasty and delicious cake instead!
Now I’ve been hearing for years about mug cakes and mug muffins, but as a baking lover, I did not mind spending that little bit of extra time to create a quality, oven-kissed dollop of cakery. Microwaving cake in a mug just seemed blasphemous. A sacrilege of epic proportions! I mean seriously?!! But then I started considering it in a whole new light. Have you ever wanted to try making a certain cake flavour combination that’s just ???!!! (it’s embarrassing how much time I had to spend to make that word look the way it does. A amount of time – which is why I had to make use of it twice just to justify it. I have problems 🙂 ). OK, probably you haven’t because you don’t lie awake at night thinking about these things (uhhh…neither do I, I swear 😉 ). Anywho, it dawned on me that this is actually a quick and dirty way to test out said flavours without wasting a whole cake and hours of your life on something potentially terrible. Not that I’m making anything too insane here, but I could see the future possibilities. Besides, in order to get a real read on whether this a good future ground for beta testing cake and cupcake flavour pairings, I’d need to do a control recipe first so I know whether a cake is bad because it’s a terrible flavour idea, or if it’s bad because it was made in the microwave. Am I right?
On that note, I thought I’d hook myself up with a little cinnamon roll coffee cake mug cake (I mean, it’s already in a mug, so coffee cake topping felt like a must). And while we’re making this bad boy, why not top it with a generous drizzle (read: huge dollop 😉 ) of cream cheese frosting? Though I didn’t do this, if you happen to have a microwaveable travel mug, this could actually make a super awesome..uh…breakfast idea? It would totally stay warm on the road making you the envy of all your coworkers when they smell the deliciously cinnamon scent emanating from your morning cup of “Joe” (wow, you’re quite the cannibal there. Don’t worry your secret’s safe with me 😉 ). OR, you could just mix all the ingredients in your mug, and make it in 60 seconds in the microwave when you get to work! I encourage you to skip the Cinnabon line and save yourself some time and mula by creating this fast, fresh forkful of fabulousness (ALLITERATION!!!!!).
This may be a bit of a mug-ly duckling at the end of the day, but in your stomach it will turn into a delicious swan (hmmm…that sounds kind of weird actually, but just go with it 😉 What I’m really trying to say here, is that this turned out surprisingly delicious, and isn’t that all that matters here?).
Yield: 1-2 mug cakes depending how big your mug is
Ingredients
Cake:
- 3 1/2 tablespoons flour (cake/ pastry flour is better if you have it)
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- large pinch baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- a few gratings of fresh nutmeg or 1/8 teaspoon of dry
- 2 teaspoons vegan butter
- 2 teaspoons vegan mayo (or just 4 teaspoons vegan butter if you don’t find this. Through trial and error, I just found this made it moister)
- 2 1/2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon non-dairy milk, divided
- 2 teaspoons cookie butter (optional)
Streusal Topping (optional):
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons vegan butter
- 1 1/2 tablespoons flour
- 1-2 teaspoons toasted pecans (optional, I just had them on hand and thought they’d help to keep the topping crunchy)
Cream Cheese Drizzle (optional):
- 1 teaspoon vegan butter
- 1 teaspoons vegan cream cheese
- 1 tablespoon icing sugar
- pinch of cinnamon (optional)
Directions
- If making streusal topping and cream cheese drizzle, I recommend making them both first so you have them ready when you need them. For streusal topping – In a small bowl combine streusal topping ingredients. For cream cheese drizzle, I recommend doing what I did which was taking a sandwich baggie, dropping all the ingredients into one corner and just working everything together with your fingertips until combined (this way, you just snip a tiny hole in the corner after and squeeze out a swirl on top of your cake as soon as it’s out of the microwave). Alternatively, just stirring together in a small bowl is fine too.
- For the cake – combine all the cake ingredients, except the cookie butter (if using) and 1 teaspoon of non-dairy milk, in a mug and whisk/ stir together until smoothish. Drop cookie butter on top, into the center of batter (don’t worry about it, it will sink down as it cooks). Drizzle top with 1 teaspoon of non-dairy milk (this will help keep it nice and moist)
- Microwave on high for about 30 seconds, then remove from the microwave and sprinkle streusal on top.
- Return to the microwave for another 30-45 seconds (you may need slightly less or slightly more time depending on your microwave). You want your cake to come out when the edges look mostly done. It’s fine if the center is a bit wobbly, it’ll set up a bit as it cools. The biggest mistake you can make here is overcooking – you’ll end up with rubbery cake, and nobody wants that. Underbaked is still delicious, so better to err on the side of caution if you’re unsure.
- Remove cake from the microwave and immediately squeeze out a spiral of cream cheese on top (or just drizzle with a spoon if you just mixed it in a bowl).
- Enjoy immediately!
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