Microwave Vanilla Cake for One, With Frosting!

I'm always on the look out for desserts for one, particularly ones that can go in the microwave.  I thought that once I had a family, individual serving desserts would go out the window.  Maybe if I had a huge family, or if I didn't have a  major dessert addiction.   Right now, if I make a huge dessert for the family over the weekend, I'm home during the week...
Alone.
With the rest of the dessert.

Since I can't seem to resist having a little something sweet mid day, and I don't want to buy an entire new wardrobe, individual serving desserts set a limit of how much I can eat.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't have these individual desserts every day.  Sometimes a piece of chocolate will sate my sweet tooth.  For days when that just wont cut it I like to have choices.

My favorites so far are: Chocolate brownie, Coffee cake and Maple Oatmeal cookie.   I usually have all the ingredients on hand, and they don't take much effort to whip together.  Still, I'm always on the look out for the next best thing.

I think I may have found it with Chocolate covered Katie's vanilla cupcake for one .Did I mention that you can top it with Chocolate peanut butter frosting?

This recipe does require you to dirty up two bowls.  No biggie though. You get to lick the frosting bowl after you are done, so that makes it worth your time and effort.

As you can see, this recipe makes  more than one serving of frosting.  I was able to frost two mini cakes and have enough to spread the rest on top of a few graham crackers.   The single serving of cake was enough to satisfy my cravings enough so I didn't want to eat all the frosting in one sitting.

In case you were curious, the photo above shows an uncooked version of the cake.  This particular cake I forgot to add baking powder. So, as you can see in the photo below, the cake didn't rise very much.  I've since made this cake correctly and if you cook it in the microwave it rises quite a bit, but be aware that it will fall once it cools.  If you want to avoid this, bake it in the oven as suggested in the original recipe.  I don't know about you, but I can't wait for my oven to preheat on most afternoons.  Besides, it seems like a waste of energy to heat up a whole big oven for one tiny little dessert.

And here's the finished product.  Yum! And the best part, I don't have to share! ;)


Single Lady Cupcake (makes just one cupcake)from Chocolate Covered Katie
3 T flour
heaping 1/16th tsp salt
1 T applesauce, oil, or pre-melted margarine
1 T plus 1 t liquid (milk of choice or water)
1/4 t vanilla
1/4 t baking powder
1-1 1/2 T sugar

Preheat oven to 330F. Mix ingredients in small oven proof dish like a ramekin.Bake 12-15 min. Or nuke 50 sec in microwave (OR until cake is cooked through to your liking. I like my microwaved cakes on the gooey side.) (Don't be like me and forget the baking powder the first time you make this.  Your cake will still be delish, but won't rise.)

Reeses Pieces Frosting (makes about 1/2 c) from Chocolate Covered Katie
1/4 c peanut butter
2T + 1 t maple syrup (I used the fake stuff)
2 T cocoa powder
1 T milk
3/4 t vanilla
handful of chocolate chips (the “pieces”) (I chopped up 6 dark choc kisses because underwear gnomes stole all my chocolate chips)

Blend everything (including chips) in sm food processor/Magic Bullet. (I didn't feel like scrubbing my processor so mixed things by hand and it worked out just fine.) Store uneaten frosting covered in fridge.