a birthday brunch dessert!

i love magnolia bakery as much as the next person. (even though i can only lick the frosting off of the top of the cupcakes...sad, really...) ok, so i love babycakes as much as the next person and watching adults line up for cupcakes at magnolia but there seems to be a bit of a cupcake backlash brewing. i mean hell, martha stewart even has a new cupcake cookbook coming out. time to move on to the next dessert trend, people!

however, since the cupcake is such an innocent symbol of happiness that is hard to replace, when i had to prepare a birthday dessert in a short amount of time friday night, i started thinking towards a dessert that would at least be cupcake-esque and festive. it didn't take too long to remember an amazing little recipe i had received months earlier from a coworker: 5 minute microwave cake! i'm not sure where this recipe originated but it's as simple as simple gets. i made my cakes in a tall mug so that i could slice them and make sandwich cakes. i went with a filling that was supposed to be a hostess cupcake type filling from food & wine. what resulted was not-so-quite-as-perfect looking as a cupcake but perhaps even cuter, definitely yummy and frosting filled enough to get your fix.

and be sure to check out the pumpkin cupcakes at babycakes if you're lucky enough to catch them.

5-minute chocolate microwave cake

• 4 tablespoons flour (spelt, gluten-free, whatever you want)
  
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons milk (i haven't tried soy/almond yet but am using it next time)
  
• 3 tablespoons oil
• splash of vanilla extract
  
• chocolate chips (optional)

• take a large coffee mug, add dry ingredients and mix well. add the egg and vanilla and mix well. add milk and oil and mix thoroughly.
• place mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. the cake will rise up but don't worry! allow to cool a little before tipping out onto a plate.
• while the cake cools on the plate (you will need to slice it later on), make the filling...
  

filling

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3/4 cup marshmallow fluff
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
  

• In a medium bowl, beat all ingredients until fluffy. transfer into a ziploc bag and snip off a corner tip to use like a pastry bag.

assembly

• slice the cake into rounds. pipe on frosting. top with another cake slice. roll in sprinkles, nuts, etc. if you want.