Mug cakes

My mini cocotte fascination continues. I am slowly curating a collection of single-serve recipes that will fit in my cute little bakeware. A friend showed me a recipe book she had bought for mug cakes recently. They seemed the perfect size for mini cocotte desserts and the next thing I knew, I was ordering a couple of titles for myself online.

I have been 'testing' this book of Mug Cakes by Leslie Bilderback and can report success with a number of recipes so far. Inspiration usually starts with a craving for "a little bit of something sweet" after dinner, which leads to a quick perusal of the fridge and pantry for ingredients, then a browse of the index and voila! Dessert is ready a few minutes later.

The first recipe I tried was sour cream, apple and pecan mug cake. The other night it was plum thyme mug cake (I had lots of plums and no sage, hence the variation). Last night it was brown sugar mug cake with cinnamon and nutmeg. Gosh, this sounds like a regular occurrence ... but I swear it's all in the name of experimentation and quality assurance. ;-) Either way, I highly recommend this recipe book.

The other title I purchased is the one my friend showed me, Mug Cakes by Lene Knudsen. It's been touted as not too practical for making at the office. I'd have to agree that some of the ingredients are slightly more exotic and a few require substituting with local chocolate or sweet varieties. They also seem bigger and at more risk of overflowing in the microwave than Leslie Bilderback's recipes, which fit well in a 250 ml mug. Still, there are lots of good dessert ideas in there and they're quick and easy to make.

So, what's for dessert tonight?