Baking Tips to Make the Perfect Mug Cake

When you crave cake but don’t have the time to prep and bake, cake in a mug is your go-to to satisfy your craving. Mug cakes are quite popular on the net these days. You may even have made one. But in doing so, did you find reality falling short of your expected outcome? That the mug cake you baked isn’t even close to the online mug cakes you see? You expect a moist-looking and delicious-tasting cake yet you end up with a dried-top, rubbery mess.

Well, here are a few tips you can apply so your cake in the mug will meet your expectations, visual and taste-wise.

1. Mix your dry ingredients before adding the wet ones. Whatever recipe you’re following, avoid adding and mixing everything - the dry and the wet - all at once. Mix the dry ingredients first before adding the wet ones.

Wide and short mugs or small microwave-safe bowls are also the ideal ones when making this kind of cake. Tall, skinny mugs aren’t suitable as they mostly result in uneven baking.

2. Swap the oil with milk and melted butter. A mug cake’s rubbery texture is usually caused by overcooking or excessive oil in the mix. For your cake to have that light and fluffy feel, exchange the oil for melted butter and add in milk.

3. Throw in an egg in the mixture! While most mug cake recipes don’t call for an egg in the mix, don’t let this stop you from adding one. Eggs give your cake a richer texture.

4. Don’t forget to STIR WELL. Stirring well makes sure everything is all mixed and blended. Not doing so could result in your mug cakes being riddled with lumps or white patches from the egg white. Make sure there’s no lumped flour at the bottom of your mug. You can also use a fork instead of a spoon as your mixing contraption since it breaks lumps apart better.

5. Put a tablespoon of water on top of your cake mix to keep it moist while baking. When everything’s mixed and rested and ready for the microwave, the water on top will keep your cake from over-baking and over-drying so never, ever forget it.

6. Mug cakes are a trial-and-error thing. Be patient. While mug cake recipes include cooking time, microwaves don’t always work the same. You might make a few mug cake misses before finding that perfect baking number on your microwave dial.

Anyway, a perfectly cooked mug cake will look a bit wet at the center. The test for doneness is as follows: when you stick your fingers gently at the top of your cake and…

- the top slightly sticks to your fingers, it’s perfectly done.

- it doesn’t, then it’s  overdone.

- you can feel its wetness, it’s not yet cooked. Microwave it in 5 to 10-second intervals until it reaches the desired consistency.

And you can always check us out at Purplespoilz for your baking tools needs. We do carry products that make baking - even microwaved mug cakes - a breeze.