Buzz
Once a year, I find myself feeling down and resorting to making a mug cake. It's never really satisfying. There’s something particularly somber about measuring out teaspoons and pinches of ingredients, only to be left with a soggy mug that vaguely resembles cake.
A few weeks ago, the urge for a mug cake snuck up on me, almost like clockwork, though I ended up opting for a “bowl cookie,” which turned out just as disappointing, if not worse, than the mug cakes of previous years.
Maybe if I had just downloaded TikTok, things would have been different. I might have stumbled upon this Oreo mug cake recipe earlier, and maybe I would have chosen that instead. Instead of a bowl of soggy, spongy but not chewy cookie batter, I could have had a mug of Oreo-flavored, almost-lava cake. Instead of measuring and stirring, I could have just splashed and stabbed.
The most frustrating part of mug cakes is how much effort they demand. Flour, sugar, leavening agents, and measuring spoons are still necessary, but the result is an underwhelming, lackluster creation. Mug cakes mock their creator with their bland mediocrity, which, as it turns out, does nothing to lift one's spirits.
Anyway, since I don’t have TikTok, I first came across this type of recipe on The Kitchn, where it was labeled as 'magical.' I wouldn’t exactly use that term, but this mug cake is certainly better than any other I’ve tried. In terms of taste and texture, it lands somewhere between a BJ’s Pizzookie and molten chocolate cake, though it’s a bit lighter in flavor and much less labor-intensive than either.
In theory, all you need to do is crush some cookies in a mug, pour in enough milk to fill about half the mug (around a third of a cup), and mash until you have a gooey Oreo mixture. Pop the mug into the microwave for 75 seconds, and out comes a decadent, gooey chocolate cake.
My experience making the Oreo mug cake was almost identical to the video, with just a few small differences. I had to microwave mine for a full 90 seconds because it was quite runny at first. Additionally, I added a few more Oreos to make the batter thicker. (While the recipe calls for eight Oreos to fill the mug, I found that 10 worked better for the desired consistency.) The first mug cake came out warm and moist, but it wasn’t as rich in chocolate flavor as I had hoped, so I tried again, adding two tablespoons of Hershey’s syrup to the milk, which made it taste much more chocolatey.
Ultimately, I still think I’d prefer the experience of eating a few Oreos with a tall glass of cold milk, but this was hands down the best mug cake I’ve ever made. It would also pair perfectly with a scoop of ice cream. It’s not exactly a desperate cry for help, but more like a polite request for some assistance. The Oreo mug cake doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not. Rather than passing itself off as 'actually quite good!,' it embraces the inevitable craving that drives one to make such a treat. 'Stab the cookies,' it seems to suggest, 'stab them good and turn them into a sludge.' If that isn’t the mood of the moment, I don’t know what is.
