Monday, February 4, 2013

A Surprise Guest Blogger with Chocolate Nutella Microwave Cake


Don’t adjust your computer, you read the title of this blog post right. You can make chocolate cake right in your microwave and it will be delicious.
Carrie with PRCA Rodeo's Wright Brothers

Hi everyone! My name is Carrie and I’m a recent college graduate. I’m also the daughter of your usual Monday blogger, Jan. I run around as an office gofer and customer service wizard by day and symphony musician by night. Some of you might remember my mom’s Cowboy Chili recipe (here) from last week in honor of the stock show. You can tell by this picture that Thursday at work I suffered through a meet and greet with six of these pro-rodeo cowboys.


I decided to share one of my easiest recipes. Microwave cakes helped me through a lot of late night study session during the last few years of college, and after graduation they’re just the right amount of chocolate for those “I need cake right now” moments. There are lots and lots of recipes out there for microwave cakes - I’ve tried about a dozen. But this one I found while browsing pinterest is my favorite. I also like that this makes 4 servings, they can be saved for the next day or shared with your cake vulture brothers.

We start off with a few basic cake ingredients.

You'll need:
6 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons Nutella
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 Tablespoons sugar
4 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup flour
a pinch of salt


Step 1: Melt butter and Nutella or peanut butter in a large microwave safe bowl - as you can see we are super exact with our Nutella measurement.

Step 2: Add sugar, eggs and vanilla one ingredient at a time, stirring well after each addition.

Step 3: Add dry ingredients - I usually add cocoa powder and then flour. Stir well to get everything combined.



Step 4: Divide batter into 4 microwave safe mugs/ramekins - make sure to wipe any batter off the outside otherwise it’ll cook onto the cup.
Step 5: Add as many or as few chocolate chips as you’d like to the top of each mug



Step 6: Microwave on high for about 3 minutes. You want the cake to look cooked on the top, not shiny and wet, just like any oven baked cake.



Step 7: When the cake is done, let it cool for a few minutes and then enjoy! Careful, the mugs will be warm coming out of the microwave and chocolate chips can melt into pockets of molten lava. I love the basic chocolate cake, but this recipe can be tweaked to make any kind of cake. Add peanut butter instead of Nutella, top with cherry pie filling for an ode to a Black Forest Cake, or even stir in some M&M’s for a more colorful chocolate fix.


Jan here - I can attest to how scrumptious this cake is. Rich, chocolatey, and easy. Super easy.

And believe or not, Carrie has lost 45 pounds in just under two years - in the midst of graduating from college, moving half-way across the country, and making these microwave cakes. How did she do it? She stuck to our favorite diet program: "eat less, move more".

I also think she saved these cakes for special occasions....

11 comments:

  1. WOW!!!!


    Good for her!!! And this proves that you can lose weight and still enjoy a lucious treat. Yay Carrie!!

    I'm so inspired!

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    1. She IS inspiring, isn't she?

      Of course, I keep telling myself I could have done the same thing at her age...and I keep telling myself...

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  2. I made one of the low carb microwave cakes for my Super Bowl dessert. In order to keep it low carb, I used no flour but you could also use nut flour. A bit of vanilla and a tablespoon of sugar and voila! Coconut oil instead of butter etc. But then that does take all the goodness out.

    Best cake idea ever. I bet your recipe is even more scrumptious with the real stuff.

    Congrats on the weight loss in the midst of all life has thrown at you.

    Jan, you must be so proud.

    Peace, Julie

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    Replies
    1. I use coconut oil a lot in baking, Julie. I love the texture it gives. It would be worth trying it in this recipe, wouldn't it?

      And yes, we are proud of our girl. She has a lot of moxie - but she needs to with three brothers.

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  3. Wow -- microwaved cake? Who would have thunk it? And bonus points for throwing nutella into the mix! I'll definitely try this one! And gee, Carrie, what a tough job you have. Tough girl/boy ratio too. ;-) Congrats on the weight loss as well. Move more is my motto for 2013.

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    1. Don't you love that picture? Carrie said none of the cowboys flirted with her. Of course, half of them are married and the other half are way too young, so she didn't mind.

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  4. Carrie, thanks for sharing!! My daughter and I have a tried a couple of these microwave cakes and had no success. So this will be exactly what we need--a tried and true one!!

    Also, congrats on the weight loss. It's great that you've stuck with it. Making it a lifestyle change like that makes all the difference. And you don't feel so deprived. Nice little treats like this on occasion make it do-able! :)

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    Replies
    1. When you're trying this recipe, remember that the time in the microwave makes a difference. We have a pretty powerful one, too, so 3 minutes in ours might be completely different in a lower wattage oven.

      I'm sure altitude makes a difference, too. The original recipe said to microwave them for 2 1/4 minutes, but ours were still quite underdone, then. You lowlanders might want to start out with less time and then do 20 second increments as needed.

      And what is it about chocolate and mother/daughter bonding? My mom and I bonded over Russell Stovers, Carrie and I bond over Ghiradelli and cake :)

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    2. Jan, we bond over anything baked! But brownies is our favorite. :)

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  5. Oh, this is so fun! Carrie, I'm going to teach my older girls here how to do this! What a perfect way of having your cake and eating it too!!! Very FRENCH!!!! :)

    Thank you for this, pretty girl, and for hanging with us today. And the weight loss??? Are you short like me???? Oh my stars, five pounds on us makes everything "round"... 8 pounds is a new size.... or two.... Super huge mega congrats on the weight loss. I'm so stinkin' proud of you!

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    Replies
    1. Carrie has been AWOL all day...something about jobs and symphony rehearsals...maybe I believe her...

      And no, Ruthy, Carrie is just a bit taller than I am - not really short. But she's so stinkin' fun when she gets to buy jeans in a size smaller than last month!

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