The countdown to the end of the school year has begun, but if you’re a senior like me, you’re already looking past that. You’re looking beyond the end of AP exams, beyond the end of finals, beyond the start of summer, beyond June and July and August, all the way to September. College. Housing. Financial aid. Classes. Roommates. Food.

Food! How am I supposed to make food in college? I suppose the dorms will have communal kitchens, but they’re so public and open, and what happens when I’m baking at 10 p.m. and I realize I don’t have enough mixing bowls? I worry about these things a lot, guys. What’s a college-bound food blogger to do?

Mug food, that’s what.

What’s mug food, you say? It’s food you can make in a mug. Get with the program. And it’s not just for college students (in fact, I don’t think I’ll be keeping vegetable oil in my dorm room, so maybe this won’t really work for college). But it’s not just for people without ovens! It’s great for anyone who wants to whip up some delicious food in under 10 minutes without having leftovers to feed the whole neighborhood.

We’re starting today with Nutella Mug Cake. And don’t worry – this won’t take very long.

Nutella Mug Cake

(from From My Home Kitchen)

Ingredients (yields one small cake, or two servings)

1 egg

4 tbsp. sugar

2 tbsp. Nutella

3 tbsp. vegetable oil

4 tbsp. milk

2 drops vanilla extract

4 tbsp. all purpose flour

1 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 tsp. baking powder

Directions

Get a large, microwave-safe mug. By large, I mean this:

Whisk the egg with a fork.

Add in the sugar, Nutella, vegetable oil, milk and vanilla to the mug, and mix with the fork until incorporated.

Add in the all purpose flour, cocoa powder and baking powder, and mix until just combined. Make sure there aren’t any lumps of flour left.

**Use a spoon or a small spatula to scrape the bottom of the mug to make sure none of the dry ingredients has settled at the bottom. If you don’t, you might end up with uncooked flour stuck to your cake.

Heat in the microwave for about 2 minutes, or until the cake is fully formed with fudgey edges. Depending on your microwave’s strength, it make take more or less than 2 minutes – mine took 1 minute 40 seconds – so you’ll just have to keep an eye on it. Don’t freak out if the cake starts rising out of the mug; it’ll go back down once it cools.

Oh, God, what is that?! That’s pre-production, my friends.

Wipe off the rim, fix the lighting – it’s like magic! Remove from the microwave and allow to cool thoroughly before eating (at least 5 minutes). Top with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, and enjoy!

~Hafsa