Individual Chocolate Cakes

Individual Chocolate cakes... I recently came upon a recipe called: 5 minute chocolate cake in a mug, baked in the microwave. That caught my eye! I loved the idea of a small cake ... the fact that you can whip it up in no time was even better! Now, I don't like to use my microwave for such things...I prefer the oven (I actually used my toaster oven for this). So, I played around with the recipe (did a couple of batches) to create miniature cakes. Ok, so maybe mine isn't 5 minutes ... but I like it nonetheless.

I used 4 small ramekins for this. I noticed that buttering and placing parchment paper at the bottom of the dish helped tremendously! If you don't use parchment paper, you will not be able to take the cake out(...it is ok if you plan to serve it in the dish). Also, I added a leavening agent in the form of baking soda to "fluff" it up a bit....I took out the chocolate chips as they sunk to the bottom of the cake and added a bit of coffee to intensify the chocolate flavor instead. I loved the idea that you can make 4 different chocolate cakes ...sort of like in the bakery shops.

Now, my husband loves black forest cake and so I ended up doing that for him. But, you can create your own cake using your own favorite filling and frosting. If you want you can just serve it from the ramekin with just a powder sugar topping. Also, you can add the chocolate chips to the batter (since you won't need to take it out of the ramekin). You can make chocolate hearts using white and milk chocolate by using a stencil cutout to make the shapes...which I did for the powder sugar topping. Hope you enjoy...

Note:For the black forest cake I used some sweetened whipping cream and did a chocolate ganache with cherries for the filling. I also soaked the cakes with a bit of Irish cream. Used a peeler for chocolate shavings. My husband loved them!

You will need:
4 tbsp flour

4 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp cocoa

1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp espresso /instant coffee

1 egg

3 tbsp milk

3 tbsp oil

small splash of vanilla*

* you can easily add any other flavorings(orange peel,your favorite extract, Irish cream etc.)

Directions:

1. Put dry ingredients in a bowl(I like to use my measuring cup since you can easily pour it into the ramekins without any mess) and mix.
2. Add egg, milk, oil and extract and mix thoroughly.
 

3. You can add chocolate chips at this point if you want(about 1-2 TBS).
4. Pour into greased and parchment lined ramekins.

I used 4 smaller ramekins(about 2 1/2 inch) filled only about half way since the cake will rise up a bit.

5. Bake in toaster oven at 350 for about 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

6. Decorate as desired.