Feck it in the Oven: Episode XX: Piece of Cake
If memory serves me, there is also such a thing as a "microwave oven." Such a device is immensely useful for the reheating of delicious dishes, but can also be used in the production of near-food. Today, in the name of SCIENCE! we present one such item...Chocolate Mug Cake
Ingredients
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional) (Ahem, totally not optional - Ed.)
Small splash of vanilla
Hardware:
1 (large-ish) Coffee Mug
Measuring and mixing utensils
Methodology
(Presented in original form, but see notes for pertinent commentary)
1) Add first three (dry) ingredients to mug - mix well
2) Add egg, and mix thoroughly
3) Pour in milk and oil, and mix evenly.
4) Add chocolate chips and vanilla, and (you guessed it! - Ed.) mix yet a-fucking-gain.
5) Microwave 3 minutes on high
(5.1) Avoid sense of alarm as cake rises above the rim of the mug. - Ed.)
6) Let cool, overturn and tap onto plate
(6.1) Stealthily consume any remaining melted chip residue, etc, clinging to the sides of the mug. - Ed.)
Et voila. Chocolate-cake-like-substance in under ten minutes.
The smell is actually quite nice. The taste is good. The texture, in this iteration, left something to be desired - clearly a job for further SCIENCE! Basically, the portions of the cake in contact with the mug had a very chewy/tough/"foam-latex" texture.
Current theories include overmixing - It took a hell of a lot of work for me to incorporate all the dry ingredients into the egg. ragnvaeig (who knows a hell of a lot moreabout baking than do I) suggested beating the egg first - apparently, this is not uncommon practice, but it was most certainly not in the cake-production algorithm I received. At any rate, I might certainly have overmixed at that, or one of the other seemed-like-a-dozen mixing stages, and the result would have ended up stuck to the sides/bottom of the mug. Might just be a result of the microwave approach. Only rigorous testing will tell, but fear not, I'm here for you, O Curious Reader. If I have to research every possible permutation of "add ingredient, mix", well, that's a cake I'm willing to eat sacrifice I'm willing to make, purely on behalf of my avid readers, of course.
Ragnvaeig also suggested adding a "tiny bit of salt." This, to me, is akin to "one molecule of NaCl" - I have strong evidence that such an amount exists, but I have no practical means for the measurement thereof at my disposal. Perhaps, next time, it can be achieved - again, with SCIENCE!