Pumpkin Bread Pudding Mug Cake

A few weeks ago, I got an email from Jennifer, blogger friend and genius behind Kirbie’s Cravings, asking me if I wanted a media review copy of her new 5-Minute Mug Cakes cookbook. Did I want a free copy of her awesome new book full of fabulous new mug cake recipes??? Hahahaha. Wait, was that a real question?

Considering the fact that I am (1) a huge fan of Jennifer’s blog (if you’re somehow not familiar with it, go check it out – it’s the best), (2) have been drooling over her incredible mug cake recipes for years, and (3) was actually planning to order the book off Amazon soon…there’s no way that my answer would be anything other than 100% yes. Of course I wanted it! SIGN ME UP, JENNIFER!

Generally speaking, I’m not a cookbook person – the sad, slightly dusty collection of hardbound books on the windowsill in my living room can attest to that fact (sorry Julia Childs). I think it’s because they’re usually so huge and intimidating. Who has time to cook a hundred million different soups in one season? Or bake a billion different biscuits? Am I a terrible wife/woman/provider for not wanting to make soup using my own vegetable/chicken/whatever stock??? Ugh, stress.

Don’t even get me started on the fact that so many of the recipes in those books are long and tedious and refer you back to other recipes in the recipe (I’m looking at you, Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook) and require you to have crazy ingredients on hand. Is it too much to ask for a book full of short, simple recipes that can fit on a single page (two, maybe) and don’t require me to go to use wildly unattainable ingredients? Apparently not, because that’s exactly what Jennifer’s mug cake book is like.

There are dozens of different mug cake recipes in her cookbook, and they are all amazingly simple, super fast, and can be made in 10 ingredients are less (usually much less). I had a really tough time picking a recipe to try, because they all sounded delicious. After much agonizing (also, b/c I happened to have some stale bread and pumpkin puree in the pantry), I settled on this Pumpkin Bread Pudding Mug Cake.

And guys? It. Was. Amazing. It seriously only took me 5 minutes to make from start to finish, and the taste was unreal. Perfect balance of sweetness and spice, just enough pumpkin flavor, and rich enough to feel like a treat but not so much that you can only eat a few bites (trust me, you’ll eat all of it). If I served it to you on a fancy plate with some ice cream, or whipped cream you’d never guess that I’d made it in a microwave with stuff I had lying around the house. Best recipe ever! Can’t wait to try the other ones in Jennifer’s book! 😀