Cake in a Cup

     

If you are looking for good and inexpensive gift for teachers, the mailman, beauticians, or the other people on your list, a Cake in the Cup may be your answer. You can use dollar store mugs, a few inexpensive ingredients from the store, and with a little time and effort, put together some really nice gifts. Best of all, the recipe makes a truly delicious and decadent treat.

First of all, I want to warn, this is NOT the standard recipe that is widely circulated on the internet. If you are unsure, here is the one I am talking about. I started with that recipe and, after extensive testing, have come up with a modified version. I have made a couple of small but significant changes. I don't want to bog down the post for people just coming in for the recipe, but if you want to see my reasoning for the changes, they are at the end of this entry.

I have 2 versions of the recipe. One is the traditional version which requires the gift-recipient to add their own egg. The other only requires the recipient to add oil and/or water. You can get powdered egg in your grocer's baking section; you can use powdered egg whites if they don't carry powdered whole egg. Note, powdered egg is a bit expensive, so that may determine whether you use it or not. However, while a can is pricey, it usually contains a lot of eggs, so it can be used for a while.

Cake Dessert in a Cup -- Basic Recipe

1 cake mix any flavor
1 (4 serving size) instant pudding mix (not sugar free), any flavor

Place dry cake mix and dry pudding mix into a large bowl and blend well with a whisk. This will be about 4 – 4 ½ cups dry mix and will make 8-9 coffee cup cake mixes. Place ½ cup dry mix into a sandwich bag. Place mix into a corner of the bag and tie it there with a twist tie. Continue making packets until all your dry mix is used.

Cake Dessert in a Cup -- Powdered Egg Recipe

1 cake mix any flavor
1 (4 serving size) instant pudding mix (not sugar free), any flavor
Powdered egg (equivalent to how much the cake mix asks for--usually 3 eggs)

Place dry cake mix, powdered egg, and dry pudding mix into a large bowl and blend well with a whisk. This will be about 4 – 4 ½ cups dry mix and will make 8-9 coffee cup cake mixes. Place ½ cup dry mix into a sandwich bag. Place mix into a corner of the bag and tie it there with a twist tie. Continue making packets until all your dry mix is used.

Glaze mix

2 heaping tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp dry flavoring, such as powdered lemonade mix, powdered orange breakfast drink mix, cocoa powder (optional)

Place the glaze mix ingredients into a sandwich bag and tie into corner of bag. Label this bag “glaze mix” and attach it to the other bag with a twist tie (snack-size bags work well for this too).

Cake Flavor Combinations

I found that a yellow or white cake with pretty much any complimenting flavor works well. But here are some combinations to consider:

• Lemon cake mix-lemon pudding
• Yellow cake mix-chocolate pudding
• Devils food cake mix-chocolate pudding
• Pineapple cake mix-coconut pudding
• Butterscotch cake mix-butterscotch pudding
• Yellow cake mix-butterscotch pudding
• Orange Supreme cake mix -vanilla pudding
• Strawberry cake mix-vanilla pudding
• Yellow cake mix-pistachio pudding
• Chocolate cake mix-pistachio pudding
• German Chocolate cake mix chocolate pudding*, use shredded coconut in glaze
• Chocolate cake mix-banana pudding

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Putting together the Cups
Select a large coffee cup. It should hold at least 1 ½ cups of water. Make sure it doesn't have any metallic paint on it as it will be used in the microwave. Place one bag of cake mix and one bag of glaze mix in each coffee cup. Place a copy of the instruction card in the cup, then wrap in plastic and secure with a ribbon. In the photo above, I simply used clear plastic kitchen wrap. I prefer using multi-colored yarn to tie gifts instead of ribbon, since it is much easier to work with, costs much less, and is still pretty. Also, I have to admit I didn't label the bags. It might have been a nice touch, but I didn't think it was necessary, especially since the directions make it clear which bag to use for each step.

I have created instruction cards which you can print out and use for this project. There are actually 3 sets. One for the original recipe (with my modified cook time), one for the powdered egg recipe, and one for a water-only recipe (using powdered egg, and great for students and others who may not have access to oil and eggs). I created a version with a graphic for color printers, and a B&W version as well. If you want to make your own cards, the text instructions are under each version.

Traditional Version –
Graphic Tag: Single Tag, Multi-Tag
Black & White Tag: Single Tag, Multi-Tag

Bake a Cake in a Cup
Generously spray inside of coffee cup with cooking spray. Empty contents of large packet into cup. Add 1 egg, 1 tbsp water, and 1 tbsp of oil to dry mix. Mix 15
seconds, carefully mixing in all the dry mix. Microwave on full power for 1-1/2 minutes (2 minutes for low wattage microwaves). While cake is cooking, place ingredients from "glaze mix" into a small container and add 1 tsp water. Mix well. When cake is done, pour glaze over cake in cup. Enjoy while warm!

Powdered Egg Version -
Graphic Tag: Single Tag, Multi-Tag
Black & White Tag: Single Tag, Multi-Tag

Bake a Cake in a Cup
Generously spray inside of coffee cup with cooking spray. Empty contents of large packet into cup. Add 2 tbsp water, and 1 tbsp of oil to dry mix. Mix 15
seconds, carefully mixing in all the dry mix. Microwave on full power for 1-1/2 minutes (2 minutes for low wattage microwaves). While cake is cooking, place ingredients from "glaze mix" into a small container and add 1 tsp water. Mix well. When cake is done, pour glaze over cake in cup. Enjoy while warm!

Powdered Egg, Water Only Version -
Graphic Tag: Single Tag, Multi-Tag
Black & White Tag: Single Tag, Multi-Tag

Bake a Cake in a Cup
Generously spray inside of coffee cup with cooking spray. Empty contents of large packet into cup. Add 3 tbsp of water to dry mix. Mix 15
seconds, carefully mixing in all the dry mix. Microwave on full power for 1-1/2 minutes (2 minutes for low wattage microwaves). While cake is cooking, place ingredients from "glaze mix" into a small container and add 1 tsp water. Mix well. When cake is done, pour glaze over cake in cup. Enjoy while warm!

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Design Variation - Cake in a Bowl

This was actually inspired by my sister who is a school teacher. When I thought about giving out this gift to her, I cringed knowing she gets dozens of coffee mugs every year from her students. It then occurred to me that a small bowl would work just as well. You can usually get nice small candy dishes at the dollar store. I thought this would be perfect and would be different than ordinary mugs. There is no change to the recipe at all. Now, I'll admit, it's not a "cup", so technically the tags above don't fit, but I didn't want to make a whole new batch since the majority of the gifts I were giving *were* mugs. So, if you use this idea, you can make your own tags, or simply use the ones provided above.

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Changes to Original Recipe

As I mentioned above, I tried this recipe before making it for gift. And I'm glad I did. Our testing was wide and pretty thorough. In fact, we turned it into a big science/home-ec homeshool project, so if you want the details of the scientific aspect of our testing, you can check out this post here.

The first and foremost thing I found with the recipe is that the 2 minute cooking time was WAY too long. I ended up with a badly burnt cake. I have a high powered microwave, and I tried a variety of times and 1-1/2 minutes was plenty. Mind you, I do believe the 2 minute time would be perfect for a low wattage microwave (the original recipe warns that 2 minutes might not be enough for a low wattage, and I disagree with that) I found the version with the whole egg too was just a wee bit too eggy. At the suggestion of another LOK blogger, I substituted powdered egg--the equivalent of the 3 eggs the cake mix calls for. With the powdered egg, I needed to up the water to 2 tbsp or else it was too dry and would not cook right.

As for the glaze, 1/3 cup of powdered sugar was just WAY too much. I mean, I know people like glaze, but this would make so much, the cake was swimming in it. Not to mention cost and waste. After trying a variety of measurements, I settled on 2 heaping tablespoons of powdered sugar and 1 tsp of water. I tried the powdered flavoring, but honestly it was just a bit too much. The cake was very rich, almost like a brownie, and didn't need a contrasting flavor. However, I could see where someone might want to use it, so 1 tsp worked well.

When we got the core recipe down, I will tell you the cake was fantastic. Aside from making this just for gifts, I could definitely see myself making a batch and keeping it in a container for quick snacks. I mean, how awesome is that? Cake anytime, in just a minute and a half. Awesome...and dangerous!