Molten Lava Mug Cake (in the microwave)

That's right, cake in a microwave!  I found this recipe a couple years ago on cleobuttera.com and with a few tweaks it has been my go to for a quick dessert.  You can check out the original on her website too because her pictures are gorgeous and her site name is hilarious.

The original recipe says for one but this makes a pretty big bowls worth so we usually split it between us. It takes about 5 minutes to throw together and even less to cook.  Also, it doesn't leave you with an entire cake to slowly eat the rest of the week so it's only one night of bad eating choices ;)

Molten Lava Mug Cake (2 servings)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
3 T. butter (melted)
3 T. whole milk
1 egg (small is good here)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips*
1 T. water

In a large (microwave safe) cereal bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt.  In another bowl melt butter.  To the melted butter add milk, egg, and vanilla.  Whisk to combine.  Add to dry ingredients and stir until combined.  Place chocolate chips on top of batter in a clump in the middle (you don't need to push them down in, they'll take care of that themselves during baking).  Sprinkle tablespoon of water over top of the batter and chocolate.

Bake in the microwave on full power for 1 min. 35 seconds (up to 2 minutes depending on microwave) or until cake is set but not dried out.  (You don't want to over bake it or you won't get your molten core!) If still not cooked through keep baking at 5 second intervals until done.

*For a nutty twist you can sub 2 T. peanut butter instead of the chocolate chips.  Push it down into the batter slightly.This gives you a nice peanut butter lava instead of chocolate.  It's pretty much Alex's favorite this way!