
Craft: magazine featured a five-minute microwave chocolate cake the other day – now there’s something hard to resist. The comments weren’t entirely favourable though, and the idea of three tablespoons of oil in a one-cup cake seemed… excessive.
A little searching uncovered a slightly modified version which replaces half the oil with yoghurt. Promising, and definitely worth a crack. I added a handful of chocolate chips to the mix because I had them, and extra chocolate is almost never a bad idea.
I used a ‘cup’ a little smaller than a latte bowl – the amount of batter is generous – so I’d recommend using either the biggest cup you own, or a small bowl. True to expectation the cake rose above the rim of the cup while cooking, and sank back to its original state at the end. Since there’s no rising agent in the batter I opted not to keep cooking the daylights out of it, and let it sit for a minute.
Turning it onto a plate and digging a fork in revealed it to be deliciously moist, dense and chocolatey. I mean, it’s no gateux (mine was the teeniest bit chewy), but if you’re craving an immediate chocolate cake fix, it’s hard to go past.
Five-minute chocolate cake
4 Tbs plain flour
4 Tbs caster sugar
2 Tbs cocoa
1 egg
3 Tbs milk
2 Tbs vanilla yogurt
1.5 Tbs vegetable oil
handful of chocolate chips
Mix dry ingredients together in a large cup (something about the size of a latte bowl seems to work well), then add wet ingredients and stir until mixed.
Microwave uncovered on High for 3 minutes, then let stand for a minute. The cake will rise a little above the rim of the cup, but sink again at the end of cooking.
Turn out onto a plate, add a scoop of ice-cream, a drizzle of cream or a spoonful of yoghurt and eat!