This recipe is for those selfish moments where you need chocolate cake and you need it now. It easily scales to as many or as few as you need, keep the proportions the same by just using different sized spoons, although it’s tricky to find a quarter sized egg. The self-raising flour should expand to twice the size of the batter, so make sure your mug or basin is only half filled, otherwise you’ll be eating it straight from the microwave.

The illustration was done using heaped tablespoons and would have been plenty for four people.

Ingredients

4 level tablespoons self-raising flour
4 level tablespoons sugar
2 level tablespoons cocoa powder
1 small egg
3 level tablespoons milk
3 level tablespoons oil
3 level tablespoons cocolate chips, or roughly chopped chocolate (half a mini mars bar would do the job if you really wanted to annoy your dentist)

Method

Add the dry ingredients to your largest mug or a pudding basin and give it a stir

Beat the egg and add it to the mug, along with the milk and oil and stir it a lot until it’s well mixed up and smooth

Pour in the lumps of chocolate and half a teaspoon of your favourite flavouring (vanilla extract or a liqueur would be nice) and loosely stir through

Instant Cake Mix

Put it in a microwave and cook it on maximum for two minutes

If you’re cooking for others, wait for it to cool, turn out and serve with single cream, if you like.

If it’s all for you, just grab an oven glove and a spoon.

Instant Cake