Lemon cake: 3 minutes, 100 calories!

A couple weeks ago, my four-year-old decided it was my "betend buwtday." To celebrate, she served me "betend wemon sauce cake."

And then I wanted real lemon sauce cake. But I knew I didn't want a whole lemon cake in my house, so I tracked down a microwave lemon cake recipe. The original recipe called for 3Tbsp of oil, and one commenter had trouble with the cake turning out oily. So I cut calories and fat by replacing half that oil with applesauce.

The recipe:

3 tablespoons all purpose flour
3 tablespoons confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (I squeezed 1/3 of a medium lemon)
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
splash of vanilla (oops, I forgot this!)

Mix the dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients. The lemon juice will probably react with the baking soda and begin bubbling, resulting in a fluffy pancake-like batter.

Divide the batter between two ramekins and microwave. The original recipe suggested 45 seconds and that a full minute was too much. However, even after a minute, the edges of my cake were totally liquid. I ended up microwaving for 1:30.

The original recipe used a lemon juice + 2Tbsp confectioners' sugar glaze, but I used some leftover blackberry syrup. I'd also wanted to use this beautiful jar of lemon curd I have, but after the results, I decided it wasn't worth opening the jar.

The result was a little gummy at first and didn't release from my bowls well (even though they were greased and floured)--hence the :S on the plate.

However, after it had a few minutes to set, it tasted pretty darn good! I let my four-year-old try a bite and she insisted I share my cake with her. The bright flavor of lemon—and the word "deewicious!" from my daughter—totally brightened my day.

Each cake is 95 calories. Woot!

Have you tried microwave cakes?