After the success of the red wine brownies for Valentine's Day, I started looking around for something tasty to make for St. Patrick's Day.

That was when I came upon Mima Sinclair's mug cakes via "The Daily Meal."  The specific recipe that caught my eye was her Guinness Mug Cake recipe made with Guinness Stout.

So you know I just had to try it, but instead I used a local East End Stout.  I chose to make mine with Long Ireland's Breakfast Stout, because it's actually made with coffee. 

Long Ireland Beer Company is a fairly new brewery on the East End. Based in Riverhead, they've been distributing since 2009, but only began operating their own brewery in 2011.



The next challenge was finding a mug to microwave the cakes in. My hodgepodge collection of coffee mugs and tea cups are pretty scary looking. They were the last thing I wanted to create something delicious in that would then be photographed. 

So I asked my husband if I could use some of the good stuff. He collects Pfaltzgraff dishes, but we hardly ever use the pieces, so somehow I talked him into using them for my mug project.

The mug cake recipe is easy to follow. The entire cake is made in a mug. I tweaked it a bit by not using as much butter or sugar in mine, but that's a personal choice. They're super easy and fun to make, especially with kids, because there's no cooking or hot stoves involved.

You can find more versions of Mima Sinclair's Mug Cakes in her book, "Mug Cakes. 40 Speedy Cakes to make in the microwave."  There's different flavors for other holidays and occasions as well. Erin go Braugh!