Straight from the Microwave: A review of three mug treat recipes

My family’s dish cupboard is home to over 20 mugs, each more unique than the last. Polka dots, college mascots, finger-painted trees — you name it, and we have it. It’s my family’s quirk. After practically rotting in the cabinet, I decided to dust off the distinctive mugs. These mugs shouldn’t be subject to gross grandma tea or screeching hot coffee — so I made mug treats. 

Call me deprived, but until this point I’ve never had sponge cake before in any form — out of the oven or a mug. Of course I had heard of sponge cakes and seen decadent pictures online before but it always seemed like an extravagant dish only the top bakers could serve at weddings — until now.

The recipe displayed pictures of a perfectly caramel brown cake lightly dusted with powdered sugar and topped with berries — I couldn’t believe this masterpiece could come out of my rusty microwave.

Once I was ready to put the recipe to the test, I mixed together the ingredients. And although ingredients like almond extract called for me to step more out of my comfort zone, it didn’t take away from the quick-prep aspect of mug cakes. 

After 15 minutes of melting butter, sifting flour and cracking eggs, I set the sponge cake to cook in the microwave for one minute. Combining the cake ingredients together gave me the illusion that I was a master chef creating an elaborate dish.

My final touch after taking the toasted cake out of the microwave was sprinkling a pinch of powdered sugar and placing one strawberry and two blueberries on top. I couldn’t believe it — my cake almost looked like the professional recipe picture. 

At first bite the powdered sugar overtook the flavors of the batter as they exploded in my mouth. The powdered sugar was simply a fresh coat of paint over an already beautiful mural. And afterall, this gourmet sponge cake was made in an old under-used pantry mug.

It’s the teenager classic: a greasy and slightly burnt 14-inch pepperoni pizza — but now made mug style. Your ultimate late night craving is accessible and easy to make. Sounds perfect, right?

I’ve never been a pizza lover, easily choosing a Caesar salad over a cheesy mess. But I was willing to let this mug recipe change my mind. After combining the ingredients to make the crust, I took a small bite of the raw batter. At first taste it was well balanced: the wheat took most of the flavor while the olive oil was a subtle touch. However once the pizza came out of the microwave it was a whole different story.

The crust was dry, flaky and stuck to the roof of my mouth as I attempted to swallow my bite down. And to my disappointment the flawlessly matched flavors from before cooking disappeared into a biscuit crust. No literally, the recipe tasted like it was a biscuit with pepperoni and marinara sauce on top.

Minus the disappointment of the crust, I was pleasantly surprised with the aroma of the Italian spices and gooeyness of the cheese. They melted together to mimic an authentic brick-oven pizza, but instead mine was made in a mug and tasted like a brick.

I wouldn’t be the first to recreate the pizza mug, however I won’t totally give this recipe a bad rap. Next time, I’ll add more milk into the crust as an attempt to improve the texture and my overall rating of the pizza.

Chocolate cake — my go-to birthday treat and heaven for a chocolate lover like me. So when I stumbled across a recipe for chocolate cake in a mug it was a no-brainer. 

This cake was so simple to make. I didn’t have to do any last-minute ingredient runs to Hen House or dig through the seemingly never-ending abyss of my pantry — unlike the other recipes. A mug is a perfect size to be able to stir and add in ingredients without making a total mess. And to make it better, the cake only took two minutes to bake in the microwave — much more preferable than a normal 40 minutes in the oven.

Once I pulled the mug out of the microwave, I could already tell the recipe’s downfall: there weren’t any chocolate chips. Quickly I scrambled around and sprinkled a few on the top of the cake, but that just didn’t cut it. The chocolate chips needed to be deep inside the batter so that each bite contained a melty chip in it. Taking my first bite only confirmed what I had thought before: the cake’s flavor simply wasn’t rich enough to satisfy my sweet tooth. 

Overall, the preparation time made up for the lack in flavor but I still found myself wishing for more gooey chocolate. Next time, you’ll find me throwing a few chocolate chips into the batter and serving the cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.