In early October, crisp breezes began to blow, the leaves started to change color, and sweaters were dug out from the bottoms of closets—but not in Palm Beach County. Here, the only signs of fall are the “pumpkin spice” and “apple orchard” flavors that begin to fill the shelves of Publix.

Though we may not all be familiar with the fall weather typical to other regions, most of us are familiar with the flavors: caramel, candy corn, apple cider, and pumpkin spice. For this reason, we created a mug cake that brings the sensations of fall home. After researching the perfect recipe, we chose one for a caramel apple mug cake. The recipe was simple, fun, and perfect for busy students, so we have included the recipe below for our readers to try as well.

Serves: 1

Preparation time: 7-8 minutes

Cook time: 1 minute

Total time: 8-9 minutes

¼ cup flour

2 ½ tablespoons applesauce (optional: cinnamon applesauce)

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon milk

¼ teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons diced apples

1-2 tablespoons caramel sauce (to drizzle on top)

2 teaspoons streusel (½ teaspoon flour, ½ teaspoon butter, 1 teaspoon brown sugar)

RECIPE AND DIRECTIONS:

1. In a mug, mix flour, sugar, and baking powder well, then add applesauce and mix until wet. Add remaining ingredients except for caramel and mix again.

2. Cook in a microwave for 60-80 seconds.

3. Drizzle with caramel sauce. Add streusel (optional).

OUR THOUGHTS:

For the most part, we enjoyed our little taste of fall through the caramel apple mug cake. The process was easy and took less than 10 minutes. We had most of the ingredients on hand but went shopping for streusel. If you subtract the streusel, we expect this recipe to be feasible for students to create at home. It turned out that the streusel was not necessary because it added a grainy, dry texture to the top of our cake. The streusel is optional, but we would advise leaving it out. Beneath the layer of streusel, the cake was spongy and sweet. The consistency was slightly different (lumpier) than that of oven-baked cakes, and it tasted like a typical vanilla cake.

This cake is definitely something we would try again. The recipe was simple, and the sweet fall flavors brought the taste of the season right into our South Floridian kitchen. Making the dessert proved to be a little messy, but clean up was easy. We recommend following this recipe and tasting the mug cake for yourself.