An annotated chocolate mug cake recipe

November 21, 2021 4:34 PM

Original recipe - "The one" Chocolate Mug Cake

I don't really change too much, but this format is a little easier for me to read.

1. Take out one mug, one 1/4 teaspoon, and one tablespoon.
2. Scoop these ingredients into the mug and mix:
   • 2 tablespoons of flour
   • 1 tablespoon of sugar
   • 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
   • 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
   • 1/8 teaspoon of salt (Just fill the 1/4 teaspoon about halfway)
     I like to scoop the dry ingredients in that exact order, to make sure I don't get my flour or sugar all cocoa powder-y. I mix using the 1/4 teaspoon.
3. Pour these ingredients into the mug and mix:
   • 2 tablespoons of milk
   • 1 tablespoon of veggie oil
     Once again, I mix using the 1/4 teaspoon. After you mix a little, you'll want to tap the teaspoon against the side of the mug to let out any powder trapped inside. You want to make sure everything is mixed as well as possible.
4. Microwave the mug for 1 minute.
5. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
   Or don't, because this is a not-super-sweet mug cake, and the inclusion of vanilla ice cream is only going to make it feel even less sweet. But it does make the cake look more aesthetic.

Mug cakes

November 12, 2021 7:26 PM

I've been really into mug cakes lately. They're easy to make, and I end up with just the right amount of warm dessert for myself. I really like Budget Byte's Cinnamon Nut Swirl Mug Cake (minus the nuts).

But man, for a "microwave cake", it's actually kind of complicated. I'm pretty sure I use every size measuring spoon I own plus an extra bowl, mix three sets of things, and use the microwave many times. So yeah, I needed to cut some of this out.

Budget Bytes has a few other mug cake recipes, and I wanted to try them out. I saw her post this Funfetti Mug Cake earlier this year, and I saved it for the next time I had milk I needed to use up. This was a lot easier. Like, I finished making it and I thought, "wow that was easy".

The taste? It was okay. It felt like something was missing though.

And then I realized that she doesn't put any salt in this recipe. How can you make a cake with no salt?! I made the recipe again a day later with a pinch of salt. Not the best, still not even close to the taste of that cinnamon mug cake, but better.

Okay, so I also made some hot chocolate a few days later, and I realized my cocoa powder expired over two years ago. It still seems fine, but I guess I should try and use it all up. I remembered that Budget Bytes has a chocolate mug cake recipe. I made this once while my sister had been staying with me and I remember feeling that it was pretty...average.

But I still need to use up this milk, and I also need to use up this cocoa powder, so I made that chocolate mug cake again. And this? This was even easier. This one doesn't have butter, so I didn't have to even use the microwave twice or grab a bowl. I also didn't bother with the dollop of peanut butter in the middle.

The taste was still pretty average though, and it definitely wasn't sweet enough. Maybe I've grown too much of a sweet tooth lately, but two teaspoons of sugar just did not feel like enough. So I decided to remake this again, but use a whole tablespoon of sugar. Definitely helped.

And that had that extra benefit of getting rid of a need for a measuring teaspoon. So this is so easy now. One mug, one 1/4 tsp spoon, one tbsp spoon. Use the 1/4 tsp spoon to mix everything. One minute in the microwave. That's it. I could make one of these every day.

Still, those two easier mug cakes don't beat the taste of the cinnamon swirl mug cake. Maybe I can tweak that one...

No photos yet

November 10, 2021 9:19 PM

Some time earlier this year, in the midst of high stress, I did something to ease my mind: I erased my whiteboard, and I stopped meal planning.

Some times you just need to stop keeping track of so many things, and replace those things with drawings of fruits and vegetables with faces on them.

Maybe one day I'll post a photo of those drawings. But not today. Not yet.

A surprising strawberry smoothie and a break from the blog

May 8, 2021 11:05 AM

Foods that I didn't care for when I started this blog, but have grown to love:

• Avocado
• Yogurt
• Bubble tea
• Berries and cream (!!!!!)
• Dessert

I mean, I've always loved frozen treats and warm baked goods, but I just never really saw myself as a dessert person. But man, I seem to really be developing a sweet tooth over the past couple of years.

Earlier this week, I invited a friend over for dinner, which of course meant I also invited him over for dessert. I have way way way too many dessert options in my kitchen right now, but we ended up making smoothies. And by "we", I mean I chopped up some strawberries, and he was the one who actually blended the smoothie and decided what to put in it:

• Fresh strawberries
• Coconut yogurt
• Mango smoothie drink
• Vanilla ice cream
• Pina colada popsicle
• Strawberry popsicles
• Sugar

Yup, that's right. A strawberry smoothie with dairy. If you've known me for long enough, you know that I've always hated mixing berries with cream. Whenever I go to smoothie or bubble tea shops, I always ask if they put dairy in their smoothies. I get my strawberry smoothies dairy-free every single time. Just two years ago, I'm sure I would have taken a sip of this smoothie and thought it was gross.

But oh my god, it was delicious.

(Hey, that's four entries in a row where I'm calling my food delicious!)

My little sister called me while the smoothie-making was in progress, and in a shocked tone she said "Jeje, you like pink things now?!"

Yeah, I guess I do.

And with that, I'm going to announce that it's time for me to put the blog posts on pause again so I can focus on other things.

v2! of the blog has been great. I've really, really been enjoying writing these entries. When I first started this blog, it was just a place for me to share photos of the food I make. Food blogs are known for having incredibly long personal anecdotes before every recipe, and I didn't want to be one of those obnoxious bloggers. But I later realized that I just need to write whatever feels right for me. I don't have recipes (yet!), so I decided to embrace the cheesy backstories.

Even though I won't be writing new posts for a while, that doesn't mean I'm totally putting the blog on hold. I've got some fun blog-related projects that I'm cooking up (heh). What will the blog look like when I write my next post? Will there be a v3?! Who knows.

But I will be back eventually.

Pasta with a friend

April 29, 2021 8:02 PM

When I was in college, well before I knew how to cook, I went on a spring break trip to Chicago with my two best friends. This was sponsored by the school and we stayed at a hostel. For some crazy reason my one friend really wanted to cook during this trip. I definitely did not, seeing as I didn't know the first thing about cooking, and even with the amount of cooking experience I have now, I still wouldn't want to cook during a vacation.

But that's what we did. We went to the grocery store, and my friend asked me "What do you want to make?" I didn't know, and she probably made several suggestions, and I probably seemed less than interested in every single one of them, which was just the first of many times one of us got annoyed at the others during this trip.

Anyway, we settled on pasta. A really simple spaghetti + pasta sauce + ground beef pasta. Of course at the time, I could barely boil water, so it still seemed really intimidating to me. But we managed. It tasted fine. And we did not cook again during that trip (thankfully). And that was the only time I had ever cooked pasta with my friend(s).

...until last week! I invited one of my friends over for an "easy" pasta meal, and since my initial pasta-with-friends session, I guess my idea of an easy meal has changed a lot. It ended up being more than he expected, heh.

But it was delicious and it is so worth it to make your own pasta sauce.

I'll definitely make more pasta meals with friends in the future (: