Have you ever heard of a mug cake? If so, why the hell haven't you told me about it? We were having dinner at a couple's home last week when the hostess said something about an easy dessert.

"What did you say?" I asked. "A mud cake?"

"No," she replied. "A mug cake."

"What does that even mean?"

"You put the ingredients in a mug, stick it in the microwave for like a minute, and you've got a small cake."

"Shut the _____ up."

I came home a little dubious, but curious enough to Google it. Sure enough, almost 8 million results appeared. Wow.

We enjoy delicious baked goods but rarely make them for a number of reasons. One, our oven sucks. It's the only one that would fit in the opening in our kitchen when we moved in and the temperature, which refuses to exceed 400 degrees, is reliably unreliable.

Second, baking at high altitude is notoriously tricky. And most importantly, what are two people going to do with a whole pie or cake? (Cookies, most likely because of their smaller individual size, avoid that question and magically disappear.)

So this mug cake idea eliminated a lot of problems and potentially opened up a whole new world of possibilities. But how could a cake that cooks in one minute be any good?

Only one way to find out. I saw a recipe for a molten chocolate cake and knowing that we have all the ingredients looked no further. But I was a bit flummoxed when it said to put everything in a 2 cup capacity mug. They make coffee cups that big?? Who knew?

I used an appropriately sized bowl and saw that this dessert was for sure going to be a "splitter." I thought if people are routinely eating this much cake all by themselves I instantly understand the U.S. obesity problem much more clearly.

Less than 5 minutes after I started--VOILA--this bad boy emerged from the microwave.

And when I dished it up---oh, my goodness!


Moist and delicious, my friends, this is nothing short of a miracle. I quickly went back to the computer and on deck for the coming week are a blueberry muffin with strudel topping and a yummy-sounding carrot cake.

Somebody stop me!!