Mug Desserts: Skinny Brownie in a Mug

This recipe for a skinny brownie in a mug promises the world: low-calorie! chocolatey deliciousness! super-quick!

I've had good luck in the past with My Happy Place's mug desserts, so my hopes were high for this one.

The brownie uses whole wheat flour and plain yogurt, along with the more traditional ingredients: cocoa, sugar, baking powder, vanilla. Note that there are no eggs or butter. Microwave for a minute.

My brownie came out like this:

It looked decent, but the texture was quite dry and the taste was rather bland. It obviously lacks the richness that full fat provides. You may be able to improve this a bit by either using full-fat yogurt, or by throwing a tbs of butter in there. As it is, it tastes like one of those old-school SnackWells fat-free cookies.

Verdict: Vaguely sweet but cardboard-y. If you want a good mug dessert, you're going to have to make your peace with fat.

Mug Desserts: Red Velvet Mug Cake

Mug desserts seem too good to be true. Five minutes + ingredients I have at home + microwave = delicious warm dessert? It couldn't possibly be that easy.

These quickie one- or two-serving desserts have taken over Pinterest lately. I've pinned a bunch, including this list of recipes from My Happy Place.

I pinned this image, and tested a few of the recipes. This is the first post in a series.

I chose the Red Velvet Mug Cake for my first attempt, mainly because I had all the ingredients. You just mix dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa powder) with wet ingredients (oil, buttermilk, egg, red food coloring) and nuke for a minute and a half. The buttermilk is easily made by adding some white vinegar to milk and letting it sit a few minutes. Then you make some frosting by whisking butter, cream cheese, and sugar.

I did make one change: I halved the frosting amounts. I wasn't willing to eat 2 tbs each of butter and cream cheese with a half cup of sugar as a mid-day snack.

And it came out.....

...perfect! It was moist, tasty and delicious.

It was also a LOT of cake. I made it again a few nights later, and split it into two servings in little bowls (still 1/2 a frosting recipe). My husband and I had these for dessert after the kids went to bed.

Perfect.

You really need to eat it right away, though, it wouldn't be a good idea to try to make a bunch of these in a row for company or something.

Verdict: I'm now a believer in the potential of single-serving microwave desserts.