No-Bake Cake

Have you ever sat in your apartment craving cake, but didn't want to bake a whole cake because it would take too long?

Meet the soda cake, or diet soda cake for those who are watching their calories and don't mind the artificial sweeteners. The soda cake was one of my more recent finds on the MyFitnessPal forums as I searched for a way to satisfy my sweet tooth while attempting to lose the dreaded, but inevitable weight gain from the holiday season.

The recipe below allows you to make a single serving of cake, and it only requires four things to make: a mug, soda, non-stick spray and cake or brownie mix of your choice. The process is really simple, which makes me wonder why it took me this long to discover it. I would encourage you to play around with this recipe; mix and match cake mixes or add more cocoa powder if you feel that the cake isn't chocolate-y enough. You and your friends might not mistaken this for a gourmet bakery cake, but when you're laying on your bed and don't want to make the trip to the store, this will satisfy your cake-craving and make your wallet happy too.

Prep Time: 1 minute
Cook Time: 1-2 minutes
Total Time: 2-3 minutes

Ingredients:

1 serving of cake mix (about 28 grams or a little more than 2 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons of soda
Non-stick spray (optional, but highly recommended)
Microwave safe mug

Directions:

1. Spray the mug with cooking spray to prevent the cake from sticking. This step isn't required, but will save you some grief when cleaning up the mug.

2. Add cake mix into mug. If you want a larger cake you can proportionally increase the ingredients, but make sure you use a big enough mug.

3. Add 2 tablespoons of soda. For the chocolate brownie mix, I have discovered that cola or cream soda works well, but feel free to experiment with different sodas.

4. Mix all ingredients in the mug until there are no more lumps and the "batter" resembles a more liquid version of normal cake batter.

5. Microwave for  60-90 seconds. For my microwave, I usually cook the cake for 60-70 seconds, but cooking times may vary depending on your microwave and portion size.

Photo by Jay Soto

6. Leave cake in mug or place on a plate and dress it up with some whipped cream, frosting, fruit or any other goodies you would put on cake and enjoy!

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