Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Cup Cakes

Cup cake. A late-night muffin you mix and nuke.

Fill a microwave cup 3/4 full of cake mix, muffin mix or cornbread mix.

Turn the water faucet on so that only the tiniest dribble is coming out. Pass the cup back and forth under the faucet and capture a tiny amount of water.

Stir the mix and water. As the mix eats up the water, add more. You want a final consistency somewhere between taffy and pancake batter. A harder consistency tends to rise less. If the dough is stiff, it can nuke at high temperatures, boil down the sugars, and come out like a candy bar. If the dough is more liquid, the result will be a cake or a pudding.

Put the cup on a saucer to catch overflow, nuke for two minutes, and you're done.

Instant muffin, fresh from the oven.


Variations -

- Egg muffin - Start with an egg and a tablespoon of water, add mix and stir. Comes out very spongy and springy. This is a great way to get some protein cooked quickly without the usual grease.

- Banana muffin - Start with a banana, perhaps a very old banana. Mush it down into a bowl until it becomes gooey. Add cinnamon and spice cake mix or bran muffin mix and stir it into the goo. As you stir more and more, the batter will become more and more liquid. Set the bowl on a plate to catch any overflow and nuke for three minutes.

- Candy bar - Start with a quarter cup of Alaga syrup and add water only if it's absolutely necessary. Alaga sugars up the mix so much that it will boil and make candy during the baking. After baking, stir and stir it as it cools, and it will become pliable. Turn it out onto an oiled place and shape it into Tootsie Rolls or miniature loaves which can be sliced.

- Candy bar with jelly beans. Stir them in. Slice like a fruitcake. Dip in chocolate.

Overcook it and you can pull out a filling. Be warned.

- Rich, cheesy muffin - Add a quarter cup of feta cheese to the mix. You won't know it's there, except for the amazing richness of the result.

- Rich, cheesy cornbread muffin - Add a quarter cup of strong cheddar cheese.

- Chopped fruit muffin - just what its name suggests.

- Veggie muffin - olives and onions in cornbread. Maybe some rehydrated dried tomato. Oregano, cumin, even a touch of curry powder could enhance it.

- Quadruple chocolate muffin - chocolate cake or muffin mix, a tsp or two of cocoa powder, some Hershey bar fragments, and chocolate Slim-Fast.


The recipes above are given as an adjoint to the Romaine Lettuce Diet and are not to be taken separately.

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