Microwave tea-cup cakes in 5 minutes

The title may put you off, it's certainly put me off in the past, but keep reading. There are many microwave cake recipes i have come across in the past and i have never been tempted to try one, worried by the fact that i would end up with something rubbery and completely inedible and besides i never felt the need to try when i had a perfectly good oven and baking equipment to hand. Now in Marrakech with a very small oven, no baking equipment, none of my trusty cookbooks and desperately craving cake i was really tempted to try this.

I found a good recipe on an amazing and reliable blog that i regularly read ' Z Tasty Life' , the results will never be the same texture as a cake baked in an oven, but when your craving cake on a week night and you don't have the time or want the fuss of baking then this is the recipe to go to and it's good enough to satisfy your sweet tooth. The added bonus is that you don't get carried away eating cake after cake, you have just one little portion. I used little tea-cups and filled them half way so they would rise just to the top but not spill over, i cooked them one at a time in the microwave on high for 2 minutes, any longer and i think they would have come out dry and over-cooked, i found 2 minutes just right. I would also advise eating them hot out of the microwave while they are nice and soft served with a scoop of ice-cream or fruit, the lemon recipe below would also be great with some vanilla custard.

Lemon Tea-cup cakes adapted from ' Z tasty life'

1 tsp Baking powder

4 tablespoons flour

3 tablespoons sugar

a pinch of salt

1 tsp lemon zest

1 egg

4 tablespoons butter, softened

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1. Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and lemon zest in a small bowl.

2. In one of the tea-cups you will use whisk the egg.

3. Add the butter, lemon juice and vanilla extract to the egg.

4. Pour into the flour mix and combine well.

5. Divide the mix into two tea-cups, filling each about halfway.

6. Cook one tea-cup at a time on high for 2 minutes.

7. Serve with ice-cream or custard.