Some mug cakes

[bunn]

I stumbled across one of these '18 mug cake' type articles, and thought: Mmmmm.  Cake.  But then I looked at the recipes, and some of them were a bit yuk, or demanded ingredients not easily available in this country etc etc, so I looked for others that might be easier to make.  These are what I ended up with.   I used to have a lot of mug cakes when I was a student whose primary cooking tool was a microwave - but I've forgotten most of the recipes I used to use now.

Lemon mug cake.  This would make more sense if it had a whole lemon in it, or half a lemon.    What gives with these recipes that use odd little quantities of a whole fruit, do people really make lots of mug cakes and serve them to people?  Not sure microwaves are designed for cooking groups of mugs, if you are cooking for volume, why not just make cupcakes in a tray designed for the job?

Raspberry mug cake with coconut flour - I fancy this enough that I may actually buy some coconut flour, although I suspect it of being an overpriced novelty -you never know until you try, right?

Editing to add...

I just made this cake!
 3tbsp of banana (ie, more or less one mashed banana), a whole egg, a tbsp and a half of coconut flour -  turns out that is actually way more than will fit into a normal sized mug, and I note that the photos actually show the cake in a large ramekin rather than a mug.  

I could just have got the mix into a normal mug, but it would have spilled everywhere as it rose.  I used a super-sized mug, which was about half-full when I put it into the microwave, and about full when I took it out.  However the cake did not cook through in 2 minutes, and I think I should have given it another 20 seconds.

I could definitely taste the banana and coconut as well as the raspberry, and the texture was noticeably fibrous, although not unpleasant.   I was a little surprised that the cake was not particularly sweet, despite all that banana, honey and sweet vanilla.

Apple cinnamon mug cake Nice idea, dubious about the requirement for apple sauce, why not just chop apple and use that?

Salted caramel mug cake.   Wins points for common sense for not telling you to use unsalted butter and then add salt like some of the silly recipes, but on the other hand you have to have to make some salted caramel sauce, and I'm fairly sure that could be done more easily in a mug.

 I'm not sure about this Lime Coconut cake : it looks tasty, but it just seems like however many of them you made, you'd end up with either an awkward quantity of coconut milk, or an awkward half-lime.

I guess this is really what a pinterest is supposed to be for but it seems to make more sense to just pile everything in a jumbled heap here. 

Comments

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

And have you ever gone "I am making an egg-free cake, I had better but apples so I can make a tiny bit of apple sauce so I can make an egg-free cake"?

I'm pretty sure I haven't. And I make a lot of vegan cakes.

Mmmmm cake.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I usually have apples in as a staple anyway, so I generally make the apple sauce and eat the rest of the apple - either fresh, if an eating apple, or baked.

Although generally when I make vegan cakes (I do from time to time as I have vegan relatives) I use other egg substitutes, particularly flax seed. You don't really need egg for, say a chocolate cake.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

I miss having an apple tree in my garden!

I usually use soya lecithin as my emulsifier if I don't have a little tub of applesauce to hand (both come in packs from the health food store near to work. A bit of mashed tofu also works). Bananas as emulsifying agents tend to make whatever it is taste very banana-y - great for banana cake, or banana and chocolate chip cake, but gets boring after a while. I find flax a bit strongly tasting for simple things like a victoria sponge, but I imagine works just fine with a nice rich chocolate cake.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Ah, I'm not a big one for victoria sponge.

I think last time I bought flax seed I used most of it up making these, which are really very good: http://tandcake.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/clementine-and-linseed-buns/

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I've done the banana thing and I agree it's a bit shouty. OK now and then, but not for every cake.