Microwaved Cake and Pictures

Picture taken at Lake Tahoe. I just think this sign is slightly odd. It makes sense except I didn't see a bike trail for bikers to come from or go to. I'll just have to look for it next time.

Last weekend, my aunt handed me a recipe for a 5 minute mug cake that's made in the microwave. She thought my uncle would like it. I had seen similar recipes before and I knew to be prepared for rubbery cake. I gave it try anyway. Unfortunately, what I had read was correct. The cake was rubbery. I gave it a second shot without the egg. Little improvement. It was edible, but so is grass. Same deal. I gave up for the day. My mind was not up for the task of fixing the flawed recipe. My aunt tried today without the egg, less oil, and more milk. Guess what? Same result. -_- So, I tried after dinner to see if I could get it right with a fresh thought in mind. I replaced the egg and oil with butter and put everything in the microwave. Then, I took it out of the microwave and poked it with a fork. An excited squeal later, I expressed my success by shoving more cake into my mouth and encouraging everyone else to try. Sure, it needed a spoonful of sugar (not trying to make a Mary Poppins joke), but the texture was just right. By the 3rd cake, my version of the recipe was to my family's taste. I conquered the microwave cake. Sure, I'd rather bake a cake, but it's still good. I'm proud of my accomplishment, so I'm going to share it here.

Quick Microwaved Chocolate Cake

Supplies
4 tbsps melted butter
4 tbsps milk
4 tbsps flour
5-6 tbsps sugar
2 tbsps unsweetened cocoa powder
Ice cream or whipped cream (optional)
A couple tbsps of chocolate chips (optional)
A microwave
A mug
A spoon
A measuring utensil (I recommend a tablespoon.)

Instructions:

1. Double check that your butter is melted and that it is in your mug.
2. Put the milk, flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips (optional) in the mug with the butter.
3. Stir until the mixture looks like cake batter (in other words, combined).
4. Microwave for 2 1/2 minutes.
5. Carefully take the mug out of the microwave and enjoy your single serving of cake. I recommend that you wait a minute or so just for your poor tongue's sake and optimum enjoyment. You do want to taste the cake and the rest of your meals for the next few days, right?
Optional step. Add ice cream or whipped cream.

Note: If you accidentally add unmelted butter, just microwave everything for 30 seconds, stir, and put back for 2 - 2 1/2 minutes. YOUR CAKE WILL BE OKAY. I know because that's what happened the first 2 tries of this recipe. Third time was a charm in this case.

For the rest of the post, I'll just share some things I've made lately.

A scarf I finally finished from the book Knitting New Scarves. I love it. I'll try to get a picture of me wearing it sometime. The weather isn't quite cold enough. Speaking of the weather, I'm loving the storms. :D

A scarf I'm working on. I found the pattern here. If it comes out a bit short, I'm probably going to turn it into one of those circular scarves that kind of looks like a cowl after a couple wraps. Maybe. I'll probably let you know.

A bunch of little cube and sphere things. I'll get some cute action pictures sometime maybe.Failed trees

Another view of the failed trees

Scratch that. I do have some more things to mention. One, I added a bunch of links and such on the sidebar. They're pretty self-explanatory. Two, I'm back on Maplestory (Knifty33 on Mardia). :P Three, I'm impressed with hulu.com. There are some good shows and movies that I didn't know existed there. Mad About Mambo being my favorite surprise find so far. Four, my relatives from Texas and Bakersfield, California are coming, so I'm excited. Sure, part of their visit is for my oma's memorial, but the rest should be pretty jolly. Five, I'm going to have a lot to say about The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks if I can stand to finish it. My inner romantic is not impressed by this book so far. I'll have a final opinion soon, I hope. If anyone else has read this book, I would like to hear your opinion of it.

I hope you all have a great weekend!