Chocolate Caramel Cake-in-a-Mug

Typically I don't like chocolate cake, but I do like brownies and caramel paired together.  So when I saw this recipe I decided to give it a try in hopes that it'd be good.  Since it's a mug cake recipe, it doesn't take as long to make, it uses less ingredients, doesn't make as big of a mess, and is generally easier to make.

Ingredients

4 tablespoons all purpose flour

4 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg beaten

3 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used canola, it doesn't really matter)

2 salted caramels (or normal caramels, that what I used)

Instructions

Combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and salt in a small bowl.  You can also do all of this in the mug to save yourself from cleaning a lot of dishes.

Add the egg, milk, and oil and mix again.

I wiped up the edges, it was not this pretty when I had just mixed it.

If you didn't make it in the mug, pour the mix into a mix now.  At this point I tasted the batter to see what it tasted like, and similar to many cakes, it was a bit too sweet for me at this point.

Drop in the caramels one at a time.  Before making this, I read the comments to see if there was a way to stop the caramels from sinking as I expected them too.  I found a nice little nugget of advice, coat the caramels in flour before dropping them in.  I wasn't sure how much flour to put on them, so I just rolled them around in flour a bit.

Microwave for one minute and thirty seconds.  You can microwave it for up to an additional thirty seconds if needed.

Notes:

~ Even with the flour, the caramels sank more than I would have liked.  Perhaps adding more flour would have prevented this, but who knows.

~ After baking, it was still too sweet for my tastes, but my family loved it.  Definitely don't use sweetened cocoa powder.

                      Enjoy!!