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....