i received an email from my sister-in-law maureen this morning. the subject line read: THE MOST DANGEROUS CAKE RECIPE IN THE WORLD!!! (and yes, it was in all caps and there were 3 exclamation points at the end.) so, of course i had to open it up and see what all the hullabaloo was about.

i was immediately skeptical. any cake recipe that requires a microwave can’t be good – unless of course you are trying to make the next edible super bouncy ball (note to self: begin drafting patent for that idea.) anyway, it just didn’t sound good at all, so i left the e-mail in my inbox and went about my day.

later, i saw this post on facebook from my friend amanda. it’s an entire thread dedicated to people talking about, trying, and documenting this so-called “most dangerous cake recipe in the world”. the results were less than appetizing. at this point i decided that i had to do my own experiment.

so, here we are. i was impressed that i actually had all ingredients on hand (i was not about to run to the store for this.)

you first combine all the dry ingredients – then add the egg (i’ll be the first to admit my fear of how full the coffee mug was becoming and the thought of this exploding all over the inside of the microwave.) and stir, and stir, and stir. add the remaining wet ingredients and stir (be forewarned: if you aren’t careful, you may end up with this chocolate goo all over your counter – stir with caution!) – my fear increased as the mixture reached to about an inch below the rim. the recipe assured me to not worry.

in the microwave it goes. for 3 minutes on high. if you look closely, you can see it creeping above the top of the mug. it’s alive, ALIVE!

here is the finished result. i gotta say – doesn’t look too shabby. now to get it out of there…i thought after i put this in the microwave that i should’ve sprayed the inside of the mug with cooking spray. that would have been a good idea. cake fail!

once i dug the rest out of the mug, i let it cool a minute. my 4 year old was standing by ready to taste. the texture was definitely cake-like, however, it had that “hey-i-just-made-a-cake-in-the-microwave” consistency.

the taste test. anya: “mmm. tastes chocolaty. can i have that half?”

i took a little nibble. the flavor wasn’t half bad, but the texture was weird. it was still warm, which was nice. i let it cool for about 5 minutes. this is when all went wrong. it now is hard as a rock. well, a soft rock (i’ll need to work on it to get that super bounce i need for my next invention.) but still – it lost any bit of airy-ness it had.

so, the verdict – if you can eat something right out of the microwave that is as hot as molten lava, go for it. if you require things to cool a bit so you don’t lose all feeling in your tongue for a week, i don’t recommend this recipe.