5 minute microwave chocolate cake

I was given this recipe by a friend. It is perfect when you want something yum and you want it now! ;) It is very easy to make and is rather delicious.The recipe says it serves one, but the boyfriend and I share this and it is more than enough for the both of us.

Ingredients:

4 TBS flour
4 TBS sugar
2 TBS cocoa
1 egg
3 TBS milk
3 TBS oil
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large tea/coffee mug

1. Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well.
2. Add the egg and mix well.
3. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
4. Add the vanilla extract.
5. Put your mug into the microwave for 2-3 minutes.
6. Eat out of mug or tip onto a plate.

When making it for two, we mix it all up and then separate it into two tea cups. We then put both tea cups into the microwave for 2 minutes. In a large mug the cake will rise over the top, but in the two smaller cups the cake did not rise over the top.

We then make some icing just using icing sugar, milk, and cocoa. If we're feeling greedy, we'll add some vanilla ice-cream or frozen yoghurt. Yum!

Let me know if you give this recipe a try and what you think.

Lv M
xx

Sweet Cherry Pie... Mmmm

The boyfriend and I went cherry picking recently in a beautiful little town called Ceres. It was a lot of fun and the cherries are so delicious!

Since we had four whole punnets of cherries, we decided to make a cherry pie with some of them. Neither of us had made a cherry pie before so it seemed like a good time to try.

Here is the recipe we used:

900g cherries (de-pipped)
150g caster sugar
1/4 TSP mixed spice (I made up my own mixture consisting of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and ginger)
2 TBSP cornflour/cornstarch
2 TBSP water
We just used store bought shortcrust pastry

1. Heat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7
2. Grease a 23cm pie dish with butter
3. Line the bottom of the dish with pastry (take it up the sides of the dish)
4. For the filling: 

• Put half the cherries and caster sugar in a saucepan and bring to a simmer
• Add the mixed spice
• In a separate bowl mix the cornflour and water to make a paste
• Remove saucepan from heat and add paste
• Return to heat until mixture boils and thickens
• Add remaining cherries
• Pour mixture into the dish lined with pastry. 

      5.  Cut the rest of the pasty into strips and lay down in a criss-crossing fashion on top of the filling

      6.  Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes

      7.  Remove the foil and bake for a further 15 minutes

We didn't have enough pastry for the lattice, more would have been better. But it was (and still is because what you see in the picture is what is left of it) delicious! The mixed spice is key to this working! Also, because of the mixed spice, it seemed like an appropriate time of the year to make this... it reminds me of a winter Christmas in London where we drank gluhwein (mulled wine) to keep warm (It is summer here now). It tastes very Christmassy! :)

For Christmas day I am going to be making key lime pie (which I have made before and is SO yum!), so I will put that recipe and pics up when I do that.

Lv M
xoxo