Customer Reviews

101 Recipes for Microwave Mug Cakes: Single-Serving Snacks in Less Than 10 Minutes

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you have small kids that love cup cakes, this book is a way to satisfy the demand without making a dozen or more that often get wasted after the novelty of the cup cake has worn off. Plus as an added attraction, you make the desserts in the microwave in a mug. Easy and quick and generally no fuss and muss.

You'll find clever recipes like Banana Nana Microwave Mug Cake to a delicious Heavenly Chocolate Microwave Mug Cake. The beginning of the book contains a suggested pantry list for that spur of the moment Mug Cake craving. Many who bake with some regularity will already have either all or most of the ingredients which include basics like flour, sugar, cocoa powder, instant puddings, milk, eggs, oil and the like. Actually, the one thing I didn't have was a 16 ounce mug which works best for the liquids and the cooking.

The cakes are quick to make and are large enough to satisfy two or three toddlers. The author does tell you not to save any leftovers as they become hard and heavy. This is true. These are designed to be eaten right away. The aroma of your mug cake will certainly having you grabbing a spoon and eating it right out of the microwave!

Simply stated, for today's busy, time-stressed homemaker, the invention of the microwave oven is second only to that of fire. From heating up TV dinners to turning out in a matter of minutes dishes from scratch that would take an hour or longer in a conventional oven, the microwave has earned a prominent place in every modern kitchen. But until now the application of the microwave to desserts and snacks has been fairly limited to heating up some store-bought treat. No more! Not with Stacey Miller's handy little compilation of make-your-own microwave treats she has collected within the covers of "101 Recipes for Microwave Mug Cakes: Single-Serving Snacks in Less Than 10 Minutes"! Now moms who just don't have the time for traditionally baked cookies, cakes, muffins, or other baked pastries, can choose from 'kitchen cook friendly' microwave recipes ranging from Apple Raisin Microwave Mug Cake; Chocolate-Covered Peanut Microwave Cake; Berry Patch Microwave Mug Cake; and Cranberry Lemon Microwave Mug Cake; to Peach Butterscotch Microwave Mug Cake; Pumpkin Pie Microwave Mug Cake; Strawberry Cheesecake Microwave Mug Cake; and Watermelon Ginger Microwave Mug Cake. Particularly nice is the succinct one-paragraph descriptive 'Note' accompanying each individual recipe. Unique and very special, "101 Recipes for Microwave Mug Cakes: Single-Serving Snacks in Less Than 10 Minutes" will prove a popular addition to any and all personal and family kitchen cookbook collections!

This is a delightful book with very clear directions that makes delicious desserts for just one, and is also ideal if you have children because it's something that they can do themselves to make a little cake "just their size". The comments by each recipe are humorous and shows what a great sense of humor the author has. I'd highly recommend it for anyone who gets munchies and doesn't want to bother making a full sized cake.

I am pretty kitchen savy. However, the recipies in this book don't work. Many times the cakes come out hard. So I try less time in the microwave; still tough or not finished. I am going to try someone else nuker to see if it might be mine. I hope the resolves it as I love my chocolate!

Am very disappointed with this book for the price I paid for it. The so-called 101 recipes are actually 90% of the same thing with only one ingredient different, eg. instead of 2 tablespoons carrot juice in one of the recipes, another recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of apple juice. The cooking instructions for all the 101 recipes are all exactly the same!! This book is very lame and very cheap in terms of content and printing quality. For a few more dollars, one can get a great big cookbook like "Gourmet Today: More than 1000 All-New Recipes for the Contemporary Kitchen". As far as the cakes go, they don't have the "moist and soft" textures that oven-baked cakes have. I tried many of the recipes in this book, all of them taste like a dry, chewy sponge. There is no way to wait for the cakes to cool down to frost or decorate, cause the cakes turn into a very dry and tough spongy texture if only you let them stand for a few minute. The cakes got to be eaten immediately right out of the microwave. (I'm the kind that I eat one serving of cake slowly, just like the pace I consume my cup of coffee, and boy those cakes became so dry and rough after a few minutes, at the end of my workday morning, they turned to stones literally...). But even I ate the cakes immediately out of the microwave, they still taste dry, never nearly as good as a traditional cake baked in an oven. I supect that may be one egg for one serving of a cake is too much egg. Each of the 101 recipes uses 1 egg. Anyway, I have no idea why this book has such a high sales rank on Amazon.com. It sells well but it's a very cheaply produced book with tough dry cakes that don't taste good at all!! To truly enjoy a single serving cake snack with convenience, it's much better to just bake a cake in the traditional way, slice them and store them in indvidually wrappings in freezers than doing this microwaving crap. I feel so cheated by this book!

I ordered this after hearing about the author on the Rachel Ray show. The receipes are yummy, easy to make, and even easier to enjoy. Not only are the receipes easy but the author's sense of humor in presenting them is quite enjoyable. Well worth adding to your cook book collection!

I can't wait to make some of these mug cakes when my grandchildren come for a visit! They sound so delicious and yet easy to make. It will be so much fun for my granddaughters to make and my grandsons to "help" eat.(the grandsons are younger and I haven't been brave enough to let them do much in the kitchen yet.)The directions are so easy to understand, I'm sure we will just have a very fun time making the Mug Cakes.

Need Cake Fast...and let's face it, who of us doesn't?

This cute little cookbook includes 101 recipes for Microwave Mug Cakes-from Apple Raisin to White Grapeberry. Funny notes accompany most recipes, all of which can be made in 10 minutes or less. All that's needed-besides the book-is a microwave oven, a mug, a saucer, a mixing bowl, and a few simple ingredients.

The author calls Microwave Mug Cakes the ultimate single-serving snack. Our question...how did we live so long without them?

READ MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND FIND RECIPES FROM "THE WHOLE TRUTH" AT iFOOD.TV

Reviewed by IR Staff

When you microwave cake, it changes the texture. If texture is important to you, keep looking.
Many of the recipes use prepared foods for flavoring. MMC are fresh and homemade, but not what I would consider from scratch. Which is OK, if you normally keep on hand ingredients like: baby food (banana, carrot, pear), fruit juice (apple and orange), gelatin (cherry, grape, orange), pie filling (blueberry and cherry), pudding powder (butterscotch, coconut, pistachio), strawberry nesquick, and yogurt (lemon, raspberry, plain, peach). There are a lot of ingredients that kids like. Things that I don't normally have, especially baby food, or don't have the variety called for.
The recipes have as many ingredients as from scratch and may leave you with open food products less a tablespoon. For me, collecting and mixing ingredients too time consuming; the whole point of microwave food is simple and fast.
I like the book and it has lots of good ideas. But I'll be sticking with "my own" recipe for MMC. If you have never tasted microwave cake and aren't sure about buying this book, you may want to try it.
Mix 4 Tbs cake mix, 1 egg, and approximately 1 Tbs of yogurt (plain or flavored).
Spray large mug with cooking oil and fill with mixture.
Microwave for about 3 ½ minutes.
Since microwaves vary, you will need to experiment with the time. It overcooks/burns very quickly.

I tested Chocolate Coconut Mug Cake. I used a 1 cup glass measuring cup instead of a mug. I used non-fat sour cream and made it once with a real egg and once with Kirkland (from Costco) egg substitute (99% egg white)- which worked okay for me. I also had to rotate it myself every 30 seconds or so because my microwave does not have a turntable. And one biggie: I live at an elevation a little over 5000 feet (which would have the effect of making it a bit lighter - if that is possible). It would have been better if I had some frosting for it. But my adult son and I concluded that something warm and chocolate was much nicer than not having something warm and chocolate. The gourmet who bones a duck is not going to like this. A mug cake is to a real cake like a scone is to a muffin. (In case you ever run into this question on your SAT.) Care must be taken not to over beat the flour because that makes it tough as well microwaves. I gave it three stars because it tasted 3 stars. (I will try it again.) I got the Kindle edition for 99 cents so I was not put out by the cost.

I think this would be great for children! They are not very fussy and would have lots of fun making this.