Mug cake revisited - the mother of all mug cakes

I posted about mug cake ages ago, saying that I had perfected the recipe. Well, I've been tinkering a lot lately because we've been eating a lot of mug cake. While it is a lot easier to make than a whole cake in the oven, I started getting tired of busting out the egg replacer every time, and I was constantly annoyed about those dry bits at the bottom and sides of the mug that I always missed.

Taking a cue from this post on the PPK, I first decided to start making my mug cake in a bowl. This made the process (and the clean-up) far easier. I also changed up the method. But the stroke of genius (that I really should've worked out ages ago) was to stop using egg replacer and make it like normal cake with curdled soy milk. I now present -

The Definitive Vegan Microwave Cake

Ingredients:
1/4 c soy milk (for these experiments, I used vanilla, but plain should be fine)
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
3 tbsp oil (canola, sunflower, etc.)
1/4 c sugar
splash of vanilla
1/4 c plain flour
1-2 tbsp cocoa (depending on how chocolaty you want yours)
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt

Directions:

1) Combine soy milk and vinegar in a small, microwaveable bowl (I use a ceramic cereal bowl) and allow to sit for a few minutes to curdle.
2) Add oil, sugar, and vanilla and mix thoroughly with a fork.
3) Add dry ingredients (sift if you have a small enough device to do so without getting stuff all over the counter) and mix to combine.
4) Microwave on high for 3-5 minutes (it takes mine 4 minutes in a 700ish watt microwave).
5) Eat straight from the bowl, or turn out on a plate and top with raspberry jam (or whatever you like)!

I think this is even easier than the original mug cake, and the flavour is slightly better (it is still cake made in a microwave).

As before, if you have applesauce on hand, you can probably replace some of the oil with it to make this lower in fat. You could also use wholewheat pastry flour for part or all of the flour, if you really wanted to. But if you're so desperate for cake that you're making it in the microwave, I think you deserve that little indulgence.

It's almost October, and Mike and I will be going sugar free for the month. I did this back in June, and it was pretty good (I lost 6 pounds!). It took some thinking to sort out what to eat (toast and scramble instead of cereal for breakfast, hummus and pita instead of cereal bars or muffins for snacks, etc.), and I did miss sugar a couple of times. I don't see myself having many problems this time, since I worked out the kinks in June. I thought I'd really miss coffee, which I've recently started drinking because Mike suddenly insisted on having it, but I've suddenly gone off it again. We'll see how Mike does with it, though - he has cereal for breakfast, biscuits and/or chocolate for snacks most days, and coffee and some kind of dessert every night after dinner. Hopefully it'll be OK.