Easy Cakes, Any Flavor

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Chief Longwind Of The North

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My wife was compoaining the other night, that she was in the mood for some chocolate cake. I didn't have a mix, and have been less than successful making cakes from scratch. They always taste good, but come out very heavy. But, as she was requesting chocolate cake, I decided to give it a go. It came out so very good I had to share. But the real beauty of this is that it requires no mixer, no special techniques, and can be made in less than ten minutes, including baking time. Here's what I did.

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 tbs. cocoa powder
4 tsp. double-acting baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Combine these in a suitable bowl with a wire whisk. Add:
1 large egg
1/2 cup water
4 tbs. cooking oil
1 tsp. vanilla

Whisk together until the lumps are mostly gone.

Pour into three microwave safe bowls. Cook at full power for 1 minute for each bowl. They will be done and hot, and yummy.

Last night, I changed some of the ingredients and made a banana cake served with quartered split bananas and hot fudge. Heres the recipe:

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 tsp. doube-acting baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
6 tbs. dark brown sugar

Mix with whisk until blended. Add
1 large egg
1/2 cup water
4 tbs. cooking oil
1 mashed banana

Whisk until blended.

Pour into a microwave safe bowl that has been greased and floured. The batter should fill the bowl no more than half way. Cook at half power for 6 minutes and test with clean knife. If needed, cook an additional 30 seconds at full power.

Try this quick and easy method for making fabulous cakes. Change up the flavorings by adding cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger to make a spice cake. Or add applesauce to the batter and omit part of the oil. Throw in some grated carrot or squash. You really can change things up easily. This opens a whole new way of making cakes. Also, you can use many different shapes, as long as the container is microwave safe.

Have fun with this. I am.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North
 
congrats GW, glad you tried a from scratch cake,.........and that it turned out so well.......thanks for posting.....it does not get any quicker than this!
 
Goodweed of the North, SUPER. What a grand idea. Was it your origin?
Doesn't matter... really. I have copied and will try VERY soon. Thanks Aria
 
Aria said:
Goodweed of the North, SUPER. What a grand idea. Was it your origin?
Doesn't matter... really. I have copied and will try VERY soon. Thanks Aria

Yeh. It's mine. I suspect others have done similar things. But I always have to re-invent the wheel. I just played around with my basic "from-scratch" pancake batter, making it sweeter, and giving it a different crumb. The cake and pancake batters are so very similar, I knew that if I used the pancake batter as a base, I could add other ingredients to get the results I wanted. I think I'm going to try making a pineapple upside-down cake using this quick method and see how it turns out.

This technique is cool because it allows me to make individualized cakes based on the requests of whoever wants them, and in short order. I can foresee an activity with my family, or freinds where I mix up the basic dry ingredients in several bowls, and invite the others to add the flavorings to make whatever kind of cake they want, sorta like a pizza party, only with cakes.:)

Imagine; you're at home. It's someone's birthday and you want to suprise them. They're thinking that you forgot, because you didn't by one, and you didn't bake one. There's no cake in the kitchen. So you eat dinner and take the plates to the kitchen. While in there, you whip up a quick batter and make two personalized cakes in the microwave. You throw a chocolate ganache on top that you had hiding in the fridge, and a birthday candle or two, and you serve up a scrumptiously hot cake with ganache and ice cream, all in less than 15 minutes.

I guess what I like about this technique is its flexibility. But I'm getting long-winded here. So I'm gonna close.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North
 
The technique is flexible and quick. And microwave...perfect for the warmer weather. No need to add heat with conventional oven. Thanks again. Aria
 
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