Chocolate "Cup" Cake with Mint Whipped Cream - For Dad

In general, more attention is given to Mother’s Day than Father’s Day.  I mean, it really should be that way – right?  Moms are sweet, smell good, wipe your tears and kiss your booboos.   However, Dads deserve their due attention.  They play catch, come to school plays, help with math homework and comfort you when Mom seems to have lost her marbles J It’s like that in our household and probably fairly similar in yours.

I looked through all of our boxes of art from years past to find a homemade card created by my children.  It was quite a task since I’ve basically saved every piece of art my children have produced since birth.  I finally found this sweet and silly card my daughter made about 4 to 5 years ago:

“Happy Fathers Day – Thanks for being a great Dad.  You are the coolest Dad in the world, even with your Tilley hat on”.  (A Tilley hat is one of those off white, ugly sun hats)

Sometimes kids say it best.  Sweet, honest and to the point.

Although Mom’s are usually provided breakfast in bed and Dad’s BBQ’s, I decided to prepare a sweet and simple dessert for our Dad.  This beautiful chocolate cake, presented in a coffee mug, is so simple your kids could prepare it.  It’s quite manly with a deep, dark chocolate, gooey center, accented by lightly minted whip cream.  And most importantly it's quickly "baked" in the microwave.  For a dessert, this cake is rich and very suitable to celebrate the Father in your life.

*adapted from Michael Symon's classic recipe

Chocolate "Cup" Cake

serves 4

8 ounces (2 sticks) room temperature butter

8 ounces chopped dark chocolate

3/4 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

1/2 pint heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

dash of mint extract

fresh mint for garnish

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a glass bowl set over a double boiler, or for 60 seconds in the microwave.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, orange zest, salt and eggs. Whisk in the melted chocolate mixture. Divide the batter among 4 large or 6 medium coffee cups.

Microwave for 50 seconds to 2 minutes on high, depending on the number of cakes, the power of your microwave and how molten you like your cakes. Let cool for 30 seconds. 

Whip cream, powdered sugar and extract until soft peaks form.  Place large scoop on top of each chocolate cake.