Cake in the Microwave

Fastest way to bake a cake? In the microwave of course! Yes, I did just suggest you bake your cake in the microwave, not a toaster oven, not a real oven. Have I lost my mind? Maybe, but it actually does work!

A friend sent me a recipe for making chocolate cake in a mug over the summer. I never did get around to trying it (or bookmarking the recipe-oops!), but the idea has sat in the back of my mind since then, just waiting for an opportune moment to pop out. That moment came last night, when vet school roomie and I found ourselves with an entire can of vanilla frosting (open) and no cake with which to eat it. Now, of course you can eat the frosting plain and it's quite delicious, but what better excuse to add cake to that frosting??

So I did a bit of Google searching and found myself a recipe for yellow cake in the microwave. We would have of course preferred chocolate (being the addicted chocolate lovers we are), but alas neither of us has thought to buy cocoa powder since making that spur of the moment chocolate cake several weeks ago. So we found ourselves scheming to make a cake in the microwave.

How does one do this exactly? Well, the recipe is pretty much the exact same as any cake, except instead of sticking it in the oven to bake, you put it in the microwave on half power for 10 minutes. Now this scared me a bit, because last time I stuck something in the microwave for 10 minutes (albeit full power), I nearly caused a fire. But sure enough, half power was nearly enough to cook the cake. After those 10 minutes, the recipe recommends microwaving for 30 seconds at a time on full power for up to 20 minutes. Ours only need an extra 1.5 minutes.

The top and sides didn't brown at all (because that's what the oven does) so it looked a little strange, but other than that, it really was a cake. We slapped some frosting and sprinkles on for color, and gave our creation a tasting (after it cooled of course). It was interesting. It has sponge cake consistency and seemed a little dry, but all in all, not bad for a cake made in the microwave! I'm pretty impressed that it even cooked, let alone tasted decent haha. For anyone curious, you can find the recipe here.