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News & ArtsWednesday, January 20, 2010
Chow Experiments in Microwave Cakery
Posted by Unpaid Intern on Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 12:35 PM
This post is by Chow intern Annelise Ogaard.
Microwavable chocolate cake. Chocolate cake. Made in a microwave. If that doesn't evoke within you a childlike sense of wonder, or at the very least pique your curiosity, you are dead on the inside and I pity you.
Legends of a ten-minute chocolate cake have circulated the internet for years, but it wasn't until a few days ago that I decided to search for a recipe. It took me about three seconds on Google. The reviews I found varied wildly; some were glowing, others appalled, but most seemed to agree that microwave cake was a fast, novel and tasty thing to do with a household appliance. In the name of science and boredom, I called up a buddy and made my dorm room into a test kitchen.
YOU WILL NEED:
A microwave. Obviously.
A microwavable bowl
Two mixing bowls
Something to stir with
Your preferred type of baking grease (non-stick spray, a paper towel covered in canola oil, bear lard, etc)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
A pinch of salt
About 10 minutes to throw them all together
And the finest lady in the state of Maine by your side
When you're through prostrating yourself before her glorious visage, we have food to make. Here's how you do it:
1. Grease down your bakin' bowl.
2. In mixing bowl 1, combine the butter, sugar, egg and milk.
3. In mixing bowl 2, combine the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt).
4. Mix the contents of bowl 2 into bowl 1 and stir to combine. It should look like this:
5. Pour your batter into the greased bowl and pop it in the microwave.
6. Cook on high until the cake re-inflates itself when you poke it. You want a cake that's a little bit pushy, an argumentative cake. Ours took two minutes to reach this stage.
7. Once the cake has cooled, flip the bowl upside-down onto a plate, or if you're keeping it real, a binder covered with a paper towel:
Now that's legit. What's the verdict, Izzle?
Oh, come now. It's not that bad—it just doesn't taste like chocolate. Or cake.
The texture was smooth and somewhat rubbery, and despite its appealingly dark color, the only flavor I detected was flour. It was also ridiculously dense and so heavy that I started to feel nauseous after two bites. Overall it made me think of a microwaved bike tire, or of some rancid gruel that people in the middle ages would have washed down with grog.
If you still harbor some perverse desire to make one of these, I'd suggest using melted chocolate instead of cocoa powder, and having some grog on hand just in case.
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Recipe:
Mix stuff in portions so that it looks like cake batter.
Pour into a coffe mug.
Microwave until done.
Frost or glaze to taste.
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Sometimes you don't have the proper tools for making cake, even from a mix box. Like when you're in a dorm room with only a microwave.
The above recipe, invented by a roommate of mine, certainly isn't as good as a real chocolate cake, but it's surprisingly good. Spongy and malty!
No toaster or toaster ovens allowed in that dorm. No hot plates. After the lobby and kitchen closed, microwaves were our only method of cooking.
We mostly used the microwave chocolate cake as a way of taking the edge off at 2 am when we had consumed 67 ounces of "you pour, I'll twist" drip coffee.
I'll stand by the verdict of surprisingly good though.
At 2 AM, we went to the 24-hour grocery store for gelato. Not great stuff, but man. Raspberry and lemon combo!
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Here's how to do a legit dorm cake in 4 steps:
You need:
1 box of chocolate cake mix
1 can of chocolate frosting
1 can of Coke
A spoon (whisk if you're fancy)
Step 1: Combine the cake mix and Coke in a microwave safe bowl (something plastic works best).
Step 2: Microwave. I think it takes around 5 minutes or so, but you can do 2 min increments and check on it to make sure it doesn't dry out.
Step 3: Flip the bowl upside down on a plate.
Step 4: Frost that shit. Add sprinkles. Go Nuts.
I enjoy this lazy man's baked good a whole lot. The frosting must help balance any weird texture from microwaving -- I never noticed anything like cute intern mentioned about it. Also, there's just the tiniest bit of cola flavor that is so yummy. Do it.
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