Craving chocolate cake, but don’t feel like baking?
The microwave mug cake has been a well-known and celebrated fad for many years, peaking when famous brand name baking companies began producing “cake in a mug” mixes you can buy at the grocery store.
Making Your Own Is Worth It
But what about all those additives and unwanted ingredients? And why pay for something you can make with ingredients you already have in your kitchen?
Your safest bet for the most nutritious mug cake with that delicious, home-baked taste, is to make your own from scratch. Start out with this simple, quick recipe for an eggless chocolate cake, and you’ll soon see why the mug cake is such a popular baking trend.
Make Your Cake Healthier Or Sweeter
Are you looking for a healthier cake? Maybe you are avoiding refined sugar or you need to eat a gluten-free diet. Whatever your preferences or restrictions, you can easily make some changes to this recipe.
You can make this simple recipe as decadent or as healthy as you like. Swap ingredients like white flour for gluten-free alternatives, or, if you want a richer cake, add additional chocolate chips or even hazelnut spread. We’ve provided several types of mug cake variations at the end of the recipe to make alterations easier.
Homemade Cake In Only A Few Minutes
While we love the taste, and the peace of mind that comes with homemade versus store-bought mixes, the best part about this delicious, rich chocolate cake really is that you can have it made in only about 5 minutes.
We’ve made it easy for you to get started on the single-serving mug cake adventure with our simple eggless chocolate mug cake recipe, so you can get back to cozying up in front of the fireplace and enjoying your evening in no time. Once you’ve made one, we’re pretty confident that you are going to want to make more!
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 1 minute
Total Time: 6 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
- 1/4 Cup all purpose flour
- 2 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2-3 Tbs brown or granulated sugar
- 1/4 Tsp baking powder
- A pinch of salt
- 1/4 Cup milk
- 1 Tbs vegetable oil
- 1/4 Tsp vanilla extract
- 1 Tbs mini chocolate chips
Before You Begin:
Gather your ingredients and all of your measuring equipment. Find a microwave safe mug that can hold at least 12 ounces in volume. The ingredients will only take up around 8 ounces of space, but the cake will rise, and if the mug is too small, it may spill over the top. Grease the inside of the mug with non-stick cooking spray.
Method:
1. In a small bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder and salt. You can use 2 or 3 tablespoons of sugar, depending on how sweet you want your cake to be.
If you want to make sure the dry ingredients are very well combined, and that the baking powder is evenly distributed, the best way to combine them is to sift each dry ingredient into the bowl separately, and then stir them together with a spoon.
2. Add the milk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract and stir into the dry ingredients using a fork or a whisk.
3. Transfer the cake batter to the prepared mug. Use a spatula to scrape all of the batter out of the bowl and into the mug. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top of the batter.
If you prefer, you can mix the chocolate chips into the batter, or put some in the batter and some on the top of the cake.
4. Put the mug in the microwave and heat on the highest setting for around 45 seconds. Check if your cake is done by inserting a toothpick in the center.
If the toothpick comes out clean, your cake is done. If there is some wet batter on the toothpick, put the cake back in the microwave for an additional 15 seconds. Keep cooking in 15-second increments until your mug cake is fully cooked through.
Variations
1. Swap the all-purpose flour with any number of other flours that you prefer. If you choose gluten-free flours, be sure to follow any baking tips that may come on the flour package as some gluten-free flours don’t work well to simply replace regular flour.
2. For a sugar-free version of the cake, replace the sugar with a sweetener, maple syrup, honey or agave nectar. If you’re using a liquid sugar ingredient, you may need to adjust the dry ingredients slightly to achieve the best batter consistency. Replace chocolate chips with a sugar-free version or use finely grated dark chocolate with at least 70% cocoa solids.
3. Reduce the fat content drastically in this recipe by using fruit juice, yogurt or sour cream in place of the oil. You may need to do a little bit of experimenting, both with batter consistency and final results if you replace the oil. But most cakes adapt fairly well to swapping one liquid ingredient for another.
4. Make your chocolate mug cake more decadent by adding a tablespoon of hazelnut spread to the batter. You can replace the chocolate chips with the hazelnut spread, or you can add both for an extra chocolatey cake.
5. For more flavor and texture, add a half to one tablespoon of chopped walnuts to your cake batter. You can also add dried cranberries, dried cherries or even dates to your mug batter for a fruity twist on chocolate cake. Add around one tablespoon of dried fruit, pre-chopped into smaller pieces.
6. Make your chocolate mug cake vegan by replacing the milk with almond milk, oat milk or your favorite dairy milk alternative. Some chocolate chips contain animal byproducts too, so you may need to replace these with a vegan alternative as well.
7. Since mug cakes aren’t typically frosted in the traditional sense, you can easily experiment with different toppings. Top your warm-from-the-microwave cake with a dollop of fresh whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Pour some canned cherry pie filling over your cake, or, how about sprinkling this chocolate dessert with a light dusting of cinnamon, nutmeg or powdered sugar?
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