Chocolate Cake in a Mug

As if we needed an easier way to add volume to our hips, someone discovered how to make a cake in the microwave within a couple of minutes. Unfortunately, it's really quick and easy so I find myself making it when normally, I would bypass sweets because I don't feel like going to the trouble of baking. The recipe I found that tastes the best was posted on an online forum by a woman named Jeanie, so that's as much as I can credit her. I make mine in a bowl because my mugs are kind of small (and it's easier to *cough*double the recipe.)

Chocolate Mug Cake

2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cocoa powder (I mound them for a little more chocolate flavor)
A pinch of salt
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon oil

"Mix together all your ingredients and stir well. Put the cup in the microwave and cook it on full power for 60 seconds. Depending on the power of your microwave, and your altitude (go figure) you may have to cook the cake longer. Only cook in additional 15 second intervals, because an overcooked cake is no good, and it's even worse because you're microwaving it. Trust me, you think an overcooked cake out of the oven is dry and yucky, try having a solid wedge of dry microwave cake sometime. No fun. Once your cake is finished, it should be nice and fluffy."

Chocolate Mousse

For her birthday, my friend requested a chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse. I had never made chocolate mousse before so I was excited to try it out. I watched a couple of videos on youtube and found a recipe with good reviews and actually got it right on the first time. So it's pretty easy. It's basically a fluffy chocolate pudding. Here's the recipe I used. It has egg yolks in it so I recommend buying fresh eggs even if you already have eggs from last week in the fridge.

Heavenly Chocolate Mousse
By Christy Freeman

8 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup water, divided
2 TBS butter
3 egg yolks
2 TBS sugar
1 1/4 cup whipping cream, whipped

• In a microwave or double broiler, heat chocolate, 1/4 cup water, and butter until the chocolate and butter are melted. Cool for 10 minutes.
• In a small saucepan, whisk egg yolks, sugar, and remaining water. Cook and stir over low heat until mixture reaches 160 degrees F, about 1-2 minutes.
• Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate mixture.
• Set saucepan in ice and stir until cool, about 5-10 minutes.
• Fold in whipped cream.
• Spoon into dessert dishes and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

I like this recipe because the egg yolks are heated to kill off bacteria. Which was probably negated when I added the whipped egg whites. I didn't want to waste perfectly good egg whites so I whipped them to the soft peak stage and added a TBS of sugar even though the recipe didn't call for them. I folded them in like the whipped cream and it gave the mousse a little more volume. If you want your mousse a little denser then don't bother with the egg whites. To whip the cream, it helps if the bowl is chilled so just stick it in the freezer for a few minutes. I also didn't bother to cool the mixture in an ice bath since that sounded like too much work. I just let it cool on its own while I whipped the cream and egg whites.

Here's the link to the recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Heavenly-Chocolate-Mousse/Detail.aspx

And here's a video demonstrating how to make mousse in general:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqDa7sdEcGs