Make This Tie-Dye Cake in a Mug for Mother’s Day
Your mom deserves something more than a card on Mother’s Day, so surprise her with a cake in a mug and top it off with flowers to look like an arrangement. These cakes only take a minute and a half to bake, and there isn’t any messy cleanup because you can mix the ingredients right in the cup. After perusing the interwebs and seeing hundreds of cakes, we decided to bring ours to life through color. Rather than making individual layers (like these layer cakes), we layered the batter in three different colors, allowing them to slightly mix for a swirly, tie-dyed look. And you guys — it looks SO GOOD! To top our cake, we added springtime blooms that mom will love. Read on for the deets.
Ingredients:
(makes two mug cakes)
— 16 Tablespoons boxed vanilla cake mix
— 2 egg
— 2 Tablespoons canola oil
— 6 Tablespoons water
— cooking spray (canola or vegetable)
— food coloring (three colors)
— vanilla frosting
— flowers
Instructions:
1. Coat the inside of your mug with cooking spray. Add cake mix, egg, oil and water to the mug. Be sure that it’s large enough that the batter only fills it halfway.
2. Stir until the batter is smooth (no clumps!)
3. Split the batter evenly into three small bowls or cups. Add food coloring and mix to combine.
4. Pour your darkest color in the bottom of the mug. Drizzle the second color on top, covering the first color as much as possible. Add the last color, then place the mug in the microwave for one and a half minutes. It will puff up then sink down.
5. Once the cake has cooled, frost the top. Then add a few stems or cover the entire cake with blooms to create a gorgeous arrangement.
Cooking spray is helpful but not totally necessary. For those of you who like to scrape the edges of the pan, ditch the spray. Add your ingredients, then get an arm workout mixing the batter. It takes a bit to get the clumps out — we recommend using a fork or a mini whisk.
Split your batter into three equal parts and add food coloring. We went with some vibrant (nearly florescent) shades of pink, purple and orange. Mom likes tie-dye, right? Well, this is a great way for her to rock it without putting on her old Phish tee.
Add the batter in layers. If you swirl it around as you pour rather than pouring it in a straight stream, the batter won’t mix as much and turn into a not-so-lovely shade of brown. Make sure your batter only fills the mug halfway or it will overflow.
Okay, time to bake. And by bake we mean microwave. Put your mug in the microwave and zap it for a minute and a half. It will cook and start to pop out of the mug like a cake slug, and then it will shrink back down until it settles into the mug. Fun and weird, we know. Let it cool for a bit before you decorate.
Coat the top with some frosting. We put a heaping spoonful on our cake to make sure even the bites at the bottom of the mug wouldn’t go without.
Now add flowers. If you need some flower arranging tips, check out our online flower arranging class. Cut the stems of your blooms so that you have about two inches to poke into the cake. If you’ve ever worked with floral foam, the cake is spongey and acts similarly, allowing you to secure the flowers where you want them. Cover part or all of the cake with blooms. Mom won’t even know there’s a cake inside! It’ll be a great surprise.
Remove the flowers when you’re ready to dig in.
I mean, those colors!