Two-Minute Molten Chocolate Mug Cake

There are some days where you just need a fix. Most of us recognize it immediately and may try to ignore it, or satiate it with something else but let's be honest. Nothing compares to real chocolate fix, especially not popping a magnesium pill, the common "if you're craving this what you really need is ______" answer to chocolate cravings*. And the warmer and gooier the chocolatey goodness is the better, am I right? I know I am. I won't wait for an answer.

This fix happens to practically be health food, if we conveniently ignore the fact that it's prepared in a microwave. O_o It's healthy enough that I have no guilt at all eating it pregnant, on a weekday**. No gluten. Barely enough sugar to mention. Good fat. But all the YUM your little heart could desire. I can only imagine what a delightful treat it would be on a splurge day with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or drizzled with a little bit of caramel! Prepared as below, there should only be around 7g of sugar in the entire cake, which I split with my dear beloved (see how much self control I have? He was on the phone with a client and I totally could have gotten away with scarfing down the entire thing before he ever knew there was any food at all to be had). You could do even better than that if you had darker chocolate chips/chunks, made your own like I've done in the past, or omitted that part entirely (but where's the fun in that?).

Sorry about the photo. It was too good, I was too hungry, and the fact that any photo at all exists of anything more than the empty cup is kind of amazing. Next time I make this I will try to take a picture of the finished cake, because it's really quite pretty for a microwave mug cake. But for now, this is what you get.

Another thing I love about this little beauty? The butter in the cake makes it so that it comes out of the mug rather easily, which made sharing a cinch, and would probably also make it a pretty one to "dress up" by inverting it onto a plate and topping it with...something incredible. Or even something moderately exciting like a few slices of strawberry. Also, if you're afraid of raw egg, cook yours a little longer than 1 minute. You'll lose the "molten" part, which was part of what made this so good, but like I said... if you worry about that sort of thing there is an easy solution. I get my eggs from my own very healthy, free-range and semi-free range chickens so I don't worry about a little underdone egg now and then. FUN FACT! Did you know that only about 1 in every 20,000 conventionally "raised" eggs are contaminated with salmonella anyway? Most hens whose ovaries become infected stop laying, so if you wash the shell prior to use, your chances should be essentially nil. You would have to eat 250 eggs a year for 80 years to consume 20,000 eggs over your lifetime anyway so you can see how low your chances of illness probably really are, even if you have to get your eggs from less healthy chickens than a well-cared for backyard flock. The only reason to be cautious about eating raw egg whites with regularity would be due to the discovery that raw egg whites (not yolks! Your daily fried eggs are safe, people! Yolks are actually much healthier raw than cooked) can increase biotin deficiency.

Two-Minute Molten Chocolate Mug Cake

1 oz unsweetened baker's chocolate, chopped
1 tbsp butter
1-2 tbsp milk (sorry, I wasn't measuring, but this is my best guess)
1 large egg
2-3 tbsp sweetener of choice (mine were a combination of xylitol and several types of stevia)
1/8 tsp salt (again, best guess -- or add more if you like the whole salted-everything fad)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 tsp instant coffee granules
1 tbsp semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a large mug, carefully melt baker's chocolate. My microwave takes a little over a minute to melt 1 oz when I forget to chop it, and is faster than that when I remember (i.e. never). Stir chocolate until smooth. Add butter, then milk, combining each well. Add all remaining ingredients, leaving half the chocolate chips set aside. Stir until egg is fully incorporated. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips and cook in the microwave for 1 minute. Allow to cool slightly, and enjoy!

This is a mug cake my dear husband made for us last night (04.30.14) -- same recipe except he added a little more sweetener and then inverted the cake onto plates for us! It was beautiful, delicious, and as you can see, very molteny! I loved it.

Here is a freshly made cake -- not as pretty as my first because I accidentally overcooked it (I know, in the microwave? How do you accidentally cook something longer than a minute in the microwave?). But it was still tasty! Just less molteny.

*and I'm telling you right now, magnesium deficiency is not the only reason for a chocolate craving; I take 3 magnesium tablets per day aside from whatever I get in a healthy diet and I still crave chocolate from time to time. So there.

**during the week, especially now that I am pregnant, I try to mostly stay very strict about not eating junk/sugar, but on Sunday do still allow myself a few little splurges like ice cream at night, bun-free fast food burgers for lunch, or some GF cereal or chocolate candy.