Coffee Cake for One

I've seen mug brownies, mug cakes, mug everything floating around Pinterest lately and I've been tempted to try them for a while.  The idea of a delicious dessert for one made in minutes with almost no clean up is pretty tempting, right?

It's just that I've heard horror stories of hard-as-a-hockey-puck discs hardening in mugs in the microwave and just all around bad reviews.  Those kind of reviews were enough to keep my curiosity at bay- until today that is.

It's COLD here.  Ok, cold FOR here.  I mean, you expect zero and sub-zero temperatures in some parts of the country, but not here.  Generally it's cold in the winter, but more "put on a coat and gloves" cold than "OMG I'm wearing as many layers as possible and I'm still an ice cube" cold!  I woke up to zero degree weather this morning, another day of cancelled school for my daughter, and an appointment my son couldn't miss.

By the time we got home we were frozen.  The little guy napped while my daughter and I enjoyed An American Tale (I've taken it upon myself to introduce her to the movies of my childhood...) and I decided to quickly throw together these little gems to eat while we snuggled under our big, cozy blanket.

Like I said before, after some of the reviews of other mug cakes I've read I really wasn't expecting much.

They sooooo exceeded my expectations!  They're awesome!  I did have to up the applesauce and cooking time a tad, but other than that nothing changed.  I even got to use the applesauce I made after our trip to the apple farm in the Fall!

They're moist, yummy, and single-serving, so I don't have a whole cake sitting around tempting me.

Best of all?  From start to finish was less than 5 minutes.  In fact, I was probably done photographing it in that 5 minutes too :-)

I'd definitely give these a try- perfect breakfast, afternoon snack on a snow day, or late night treat!

Coffee Cake in a Mug

Modified slightly from Allrecipes.com, click above link to see original

Cake Batter:

1 Tbsp butter

2 tsp white sugar

1/4 C all-purpose flour

3 Tbsp applesauce, or as needed

1/8 tsp baking powder

2 drops vanilla extract, or to taste

1 pinch salt

Streusel Topping:

2 tsp all-purpose flour

1 tsp butter

1 tsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a microwave-safe mug until softened, about 10 seconds. Stir white sugar into butter until dissolved. Mix 1/4 cup flour, applesauce, baking powder, vanilla extract, and salt into butter-sugar mixture until batter is smooth.

2. Mix 2 teaspoons flour, 1 teaspoon butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon together in a bowl using your hands until the texture of lumpy sand is reached; sprinkle over batter.

3. Cook in the microwave until coffeecake appears to be barely set, 50 to 80 seconds (or as long as it takes, mine went a full 2 1/2 minutes). Cool before eating.