Magic Microwave Nutella Cake

     This February marks an interesting time in my educational career. In two weeks, I will be done with classroom-based learning for the foreseeable future. While I am excited to begin third year in a few months, this will be the end of an era of my life. It will be the end of my comfort zone entirely as I have been in a classroom since I was 3 or 4 years old; indeed, I have done very little else. We got our third year schedules this past week. The student lounge when this occurred was a scene straight from the past. Everyone was eager to see what they got and compare with others, just like getting schedules in jr. high & high school. For the most part, I am pleased with my schedule. Happily I have the rotation I am least excited about and causes me the greatest anxiety first; I will be glad to get it out of the way. This is a difficult time in the course of medical education, mostly because it requires a great deal of self-discipline in the face of anxiety and undue stress given the increasing emphasis of board scores on residency applications. While I can feel the anxiety about the boards and beginning third year mounting with each passing day, I am determined to focus on one day at a time and try not to let the pressure to study all the time eat away at other areas of my life like eating real food and getting off my butt for a little while each day. On the whole, though, I am eager to get through these last hoops of classroom education and get into the wards. I am approaching third year with a somewhat open mind about what I ultimately want to go into, but it will be interesting to see how my specialty preference changes throughout the year.

      Today as you may or may not have heard depending on how closely you follow the food blogging world is World Nutella Day....and I suppose there is a very famous football game this weekend too....but who needs that. It's all about college football anyway, right? Since I am increasingly short on time, I thought I'd share a recipe that takes 5 minutes to make! Mug cakes are a bit of a fad right now, which amuses me to no end. Why? Because they are very similar to what my roommate and I used to call "magic, microwave cake." Remember the days of living in a dorm? Your entire life consisted of a bed, a desk, a desk chair, a closet, and a growing pile of laundry that you constantly shifted from your desk/chair to your bed and back....or maybe that last bit was just me. Laundry is the bane of my existence, after all. (It's taken me a week to convince myself to start on my overflowing pile of laundry).  Apart from the absolute bliss of never having to do the dishes, dorm living and dining hall food could really be a drag at times. One day while in the grocery store, I discovered Betty Crocker Warm Delights. This was when these first came out and well before they became popular and had TV advertisements. I could not believe my eyes! A real cake that could be made in a microwave in minutes! I immediately purchased one and my roommate and I made it the next time we had a TV night (Scrubs or Gilmore Girls with the occasional hilariously awkward college anecdotal moments). It was magical! Hence the term, magic microwave cake. Anyway that was five or six years ago now, and microwave cake is not such an obscure concept anymore as evidenced by the plethora of microwave mug cake recipes popping up everywhere, but it is still magical and perfect for those evenings when you just need a little something for yourself, like on laundry day.

Magic Microwave Nutella Cake
This recipe is slightly adapted from The Novice Housewife.

Ingredients
1 egg
3 tbsp milk
3 tbsp oil
3 tbsp Nutella
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
4 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp AP flour

Directions
1. In a mug on the larger size, crack the egg and beat together. A fork is my tool of choice for this recipe.
2. Add the milk & oil and mix well.
3. Mix in the Nutella. This can be tricky to do without spilling.
4. Stir in the sugar and cocoa powder.
5.  Gently stir in the flour. Over mixing here can give you a cake on the rubbery side.
6. "Bake" in the microwave on high for 2.5 to 3 minutes. Enjoy alone or with whipped cream, strawberries, chocolate syrup, etc.

While this cake fits in one mug, I think it is a bit much for one person. It's definitely the perfect amount to share for two people.

p.s. It's much more appetizing than it looks from the photos. It was dark out when I made it so I didn't have the benefit of natural light. Even so, don't be deceived by the appearance when it comes out of the microwave. It tastes MUCH better than it looks. Give it a try. Enjoy!

The Husband Unit is a fan of lava cakes. If you feel the same, there is a great recipe for a Nutella Lava Brownie Mug Cake from Kirbie's Cravings.

Looking for more Nutella Recipes?
Nutella Sugar Cookies
Flourless Nutella Cake with Chocolate Ganache
World Nutella Day Recipes - an exhaustive categorical list