5 Minute Chocolate Microwave Mug Cake

I know that this recipe has been doing the internet/email/chain letter rounds for years now, but it was the first time I'd tried it and it worked so well that I thought I'd put it on the blog for those of you who perhaps haven't seen it before. I made it with my daughter during the (current) school holidays - it's a great, fun, easy recipe for kids to make (with adults supervision, of course !) - especially for those times when they say 'I'm b-o-r-e-d !!!!'

Firstly, grab yourself a tall coffee mug & inside this put 4 tablespoons of flour (not self-raising), 4 tablespoons of sugar & 2 tablespoons of (unsweetened) Cocoa powder. Mix well (as demonstrated by my 5 year old daughter above !)

Into this, crack 1 egg and add 3 tablespoons of milk, 3 tablespoons of (sunflower) oil & a dash of vanilla essence. Mix well to blend, as you see in the picture below .....

Place the mug in the microwave, and microwave (1000 watt power) for 3 1/2 to 4 minutes until done. I was warned that the cake might rise over the surface of the mug(depsite there not being any raising aid - like baking powder - in the ingredients), but this didn't happen - maybe because I used a really tall mug ? The finished product looks like this -:

And here is a close-up, after the cake has been tipped out of the mug -:

This is a very moist cake - I would liken it to a chocolate sponge pudding, and would probably serve it as such with some fresh cream or custard. It serves 2 big (or 3 little) people generously and is DELICIOUS !

If you haven't tried this easy peasy recipe before, especially if you have (bored !) children in the house - I urge you to give it a try. You won't be disappointed !

Repairing Our Rain Damaged Farm Roads !

You can see photos of the damage which the recent torrential rain caused to our farm roads in this post over here. The photo above was taken after the rain had stopped (but only for a day or two before coming down again - ha !), to show some of the rain damage to our actual farm lands i.e. where our crops are planted. You can imagine the damage in areas of the country where no form of crop rotation is practiced, where the land is overgrazed and trees are continually being chopped down and not replanted - disastrous !

Desperate times call for desperate measures, so we had to hire a bulldozer in from the city. It was delivered on a flat bed truck - which made it as far as our farm turn off (see photo above), but could not make it up the actual farm road, so the bulldozer had to be offloaded at the bottom of the road (see photo below).

The rain then continued to bucket down for a few more days, and it was so wet that even the bulldozer couldn't do any work .... so the poor driver sat up at our staff quarters waiting for some sunshine and drier conditions ... which eventually came .... and he set to work (as pictured below).
It's school holiday's for us at the moment, so our daughter had fun going out on the farm with her daddy one morning, and watching the bulldozer doing his work. I don't think you could beat the great views he had around him as he carried out his work (see photo below) - which hopefully made up for the several days he was 'stranded' on our farm, waiting for the rain to stop !

Since then, the rain has continued - more rain than we've ever had in the 5 years we've lived on the farm. Everything is damp and we've had leaking ceilings and even a flooded bedroom ! Some of our crops - the seeds - have to be planted at a certain depth under the soil & my husband is worried that the sheer force of the rain may have pushed the seed deeper into the soil .... which will cause a problem when it germinates ..... but only time will tell .... and until then, well - I think I may have to really start work on building that boat I mentioned a while back - so that we can 'float' in to the city to get supplies if we need to !

Fillet of Hake in a Crispy Batter

Succulent fillets of hake coated in a crispy, golden batter and served hot out of the pan

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while now, you’ll know that we don’t enjoy fish that much, so don’t eat that much of it – hence the lack of 'fishy' recipes on the blog. But, the other day I managed to find a nice box of imported frozen hake fillets in a supermarket in the city, so we decided to have a Friday night ‘fish and chips’ meal. (Hake is the lean flesh of a fish similar to cod, and is a popular fish here in Africa - especially in South Africa).

Here is the recipe for the batter which I made -: (to convert the quantities into measurements which suit you best, please scroll to the end of this page where you will see my 'Recipe Converter')

Fillet of Hake in a Crispy Batter (recipe from 'The Complete South African Cookbook' by Magdaleen Van Wyk)

4 pieces of Hake fillets (or any other fish of your choice)
120 gm Flour
2 ml (1/2 tsp) Salt
1 ml (1/4 tsp) Pepper
2 ml (1/2 tsp) Baking Powder
1 Egg, slightly beaten
250 ml (1 cup) Milk
5 ml (1 tsp) Oil

Combine the flour, salt, pepper and baking powder and stir in the milk and egg. Beat in the oil until a smooth batter is obtained. Dip the fish in the batter. Heat some oil in a frying pan to around 180’C (350’F). Place the fish into the hot oil and turn once after +- 5 to 10 minutes (depending on the thickness of the fillet of fish). Then fry for a further 5 minutes. Lift the fish out of the oil and hold suspended for about a minute to allow the excess oil to drain off. Place on a plate lined with absorbent kitchen paper. Serve hot with lemon wedges or tartare sauce.