Recipe for a stormy Sunday
If you find yourself, as I do, trapped indoors by snow driven before the icy claws of a 100km/h wind, you might be concerned that idleness could force you into a downward spiral ending only in the numbed emptiness of ennui. Several options exist to salvage your soiled soul: apply yourself constructively to clearing the backlog of paperwork requiring urgent attention; spend the time writing research or memoirs; or procrastination in the form of idle experimentation. Clearly, the latter is the only sensible option. With pleasure, then, may I present the following:
5-Minute Chocolate Cake
(aka ‘Cake in the Call Room’ or ‘On-Call Cake’ for the medical audience, or a ‘Marie Munchie’ for the history buffs…)
Equipment:
- One large coffee mug
- One tablespoon
- One microwave oven
Reagents:
- Cake flour, four tablespoons
- Sugar, four tablespoons
- Cocoa, two tablespoons
- Oil (cooking preferred over crude), one tablespoon
- Egg, one large (fresh eggs are preferred, but if you live on an Antarctic base one laid 11 months ago is perfectly acceptable)
- Milk, five tablespoons
Method:
- Combine reagents in coffee mug. Mix thoroughly.
- Place mug in microwave and nuke for 3 minutes on high power.
- Remove mug, allow to cool slightly to prevent embarrassing burns.
- Consume cake, to envy of all cakeless colleagues!
I envisage that one could even make the batter at home and bring it to work in a small container.  Soon microwave ovens in staff tea-rooms the world over will be pinging the good news of another dose of deliciously unhealthy carbohydrates.
Kudos to one of my team-mates for sending me the original (now altered recipe).