Have your cake and eat it

When DD2 announced she wanted to bake a Sunday afternoon sponge on the weekend I gave up sugar forever, a small anguished cry escaped my lips. Then I had a flash of inspiration: I remembered seeing a cake in a mug recipe so I set out to hunt it down. Turns out there are millions of them, but I used this one. (Incidentally, this is a student website which had other nuggets of usefulness including budget meals, how not to get too drunk on a night out and instructions to make a googly eyed ghost out of a tampon.)

DD2 magnanimously selected my least favourite cake in the world (chocolate, bizarrely) used a tablespoon to measure all the ingredients straight into the mug and after a bit of jostling over the stirring - by this point we all wanted a piece of the action - shoved it in the microwave. 

It was miraculous. It rose up out of the cup majestically. 

Then dropped a little.

DD1 said it looked like a lipstick popping up of the tube, but it reminded me of Ralph's little fella when he gets excited. This is Ralph unexcited.

Then after a scant three minutes it passed the skewer test.

 

 Ready to eat. (DD1 helped a bit.)

 

I've seen this referred to online as dangerous and I can see why. I mean, not only is it instant cake, there's virtually no washing up. Thank god this discovery is not going to be a problem for me.

Timed out

The watch the fourteen year old asked for for Christmas was losing time by New Year. I contacted the shop online and they're sending an immediate replacement. DD1's response? "Oh, that's good. I mean, I'm not worried about all that time-telling shizzle, I've got my phone for that, but I suppose it's better if it works."