Desserts:

Cake in A Coffee Cup

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Need a gift idea for your favorite coffee/tea drinker? Give them cake in a cup! This is a great and inexpensive gift for teachers, co-workers, postal carriers or anyone you'd like to share some cheer with this holiday season. They also serve quite nicely as place setting markers at your holiday table. Select a large coffee cup. Check it to be sure it holds 1-1/2 cups of water (that way you can be sure you have bought the size the recipe calls for). The cup cannot have any metallic paint on it because it will be used in the microwave. Places like Wal-Mart, Dollar General and Hobby Lobby sell plain coffee cups. You may buy a white cup and decorate it yourself or purchase an already decorated cup. If you decorate the cup, DecoArt Ultra Gloss Acyrlic Enamel is one brand of craft paint that is dishwasher safe by baking the painted cup in the oven. Instructions are on the side of the paint bottle.

Ingredients

1 cake mix, any flavor (see suggestions below)
1 box (4 servings) instant pudding (not sugar free), any flavor
GLAZE MIX:
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons dry flavoring (such as powdered lemonade mix, powdered orange breakfast drink, cocoa powder, vanilla powder (which is often sold by the coffee in the grocery store). Select the flavoring appropriate to the cake mix you have made. Place glaze mix in a separate baggie and twist tie it in the corner or tie with ribbon. Label this bag "glaze mix."

Instructions

Place dry cake mix and dry pudding mix into a large bowl and blend well with a whisk. This will be about 4 to 4-1/2 cups of dry mix and will make 8-9 coffee cup cake mixes. Place 1/2 cup of dry mix in the corner of a baggie and secure it with a twist tie or ribbon. Continue making baggies until all the dry mix is used. Some flavor suggestions include lemon cake mix and lemon pudding, yellow cake mix and french vanilla pudding, chocolate cake mix and chocolate pudding and butter pecan cake mix and butterscotch pudding. Generously spray inside of coffee cup with cooking spray. Empty contents of large packet into cup. Add 1 egg white, 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon water to dry mix. Microwave on full power 2 minutes. (You may not get satisfactory results with a low wattage/small microwave). While the cake is cooking, place ingredients from "glaze mix" into a very small container and add 1-1/2 teaspoons water. Mix well. When cake is done, pour glaze over cake in cup. Enjoy while warm.

Christine Malaski
Davenport