5 Minute Chocolate Peanut Butter Mug Cake (Vegan Friendly)!

My former boss in advertising Voldemort once told me that I was really bossy. "You say, 'you should' a lot," he complained while rocking back at his desk rocking back and forth on his expensive designer chair that looked like an giant insect with antennae. He was a man that didn't like being told what to do because of course he had the answers to everything.

I considered the source of this statement. He was as mad as a lunatic on fire but perhaps he had a point. I found that I did say "you should" a lot. I thought of it as trying to be helpful but for a person who felt like they didn't need or want any help, it must be just plain annoying.

Anyway, I'm going to be annoying and say that if you want something delicious, you should make this.

One of my most popular recipes is my vegan chocolate cake - so many readers have left comments or sent emails about that cake and it is truly just as good as a rich, chocolate mud cake with eggs and dairy except of course it doesn't have any eggs or dairy in it. Another very popular recipe is the Chocolate Mug Cake from a few years ago. This is a combination of the two (after much delicious testing!).

One of the advantages to this recipe is that it doesn't require the splitting of an egg and I came upon it purely by accident, when I had a half cup of the chocolate cake mix leftover from the flan topped chocolate cake. Not wanting it to go to waste, I poured it into a cup and seeing that there was so little, topped it up with a dollop of peanut butter and microwaved it to see whether it would work.

Surprisingly it did work! It was fluffy, rich, moist, gooey and fantastic served hot or cold. I fiddled around with it to make it even better than just the original recipe in single serve form and it became so addictively good that I found myself making one of these every night for almost a week. See? You should definitely make this ;)

So tell me Dear Reader, if you could tell anyone "You should..." something what would it be? And would your friends describe you as a bossy person or more laid back?

Vegan 5 Minute Chocolate Peanut Butter Mug Cake

An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella

Preparation time: 3 minutes

Cooking time: 1.5 minutes

• 3 tablespoons plain all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• 2 tablespoons white or brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons small dark chocolate chips or finely chopped chocolate (I prefer the chips)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon mild tasting oil (avoid olive oil)
• 1 heaped teaspoon peanut butter

Step 1 - Combine the flour, cocoa, sugar, choc chips, baking powder in a bowl and stir. Add the water and oil and mix to combine and spoon into a cup. Dollop the peanut butter in the centre.

Step 2 - Microwave on 50% heat for 60 seconds. Check the consistency (all microwaves are a bit different) and then cook on 50% heat for another 30 seconds if needed.