29 Simple Mug Cakes for a Sweet Fix
Sometimes you just want one slice of cake, and you don’t want the work of making the whole thing. What’s a foodie to do? Mug cake, of course! Mug cakes mix up quickly as a single serving and “bake” in the microwave.
1. 1 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake
This mug cake, like most, has only a few ingredients and is crazy easy to put together. Decadent and indulgent without the sugar or other processed ingredients, this is the perfect dessert when you want to whip something up quickly with basic ingredients.
Photo: Rachel Cooks
Here’s a unique flavor! I’ve been all about lemons lately, and I’m loving them in easy desserts like this one. You could replace the erythritol with whatever sweetener you like—maybe coconut sugar or honey. Honey would work so well with the lemon! If you use stevia, I’d definitely use less.
3. Fudgy Chocolate and Vanilla Bean Mug Cakes
This recipe is a two-in-one for a fudgy chocolate mug cake and a vanilla version, too. With ingredients like almond and coconut flours, coconut oil, and chocolate, you know this is going to be good. And I love having flavor options, too! I could imagine other add-ins here.
This one is so simple, you’ll wonder why you never thought it up before. All you need is a ripe banana, some almond butter or any other nut butter you like, an egg, cocoa powder (or better yet, raw cacao), and some optional sweeteners or add-ins.
This is like a cross between a mug cake and a chocolate chip cookie. With a whole tablespoon of vanilla extract, this one tastes like a giant spoonful of chocolate chip cookie dough. Only healthy. And Paleo. And baked in just a minute and a half in your microwave!
Photo: iBreathe Im Hungry
Here’s another lovely fruity mug cake flavor. The pink color of both the cake itself and the frosting is so beautiful, I want to make this right now! For this recipe as well, make sure you choose a Paleo-friendly sweetener, and use coconut cream for the topping if you wish.
If you’ve read my recipe lists before, you know that my all-time favorite sweetener is maple syrup. It’s sweet without being cloying, and it adds a lovely and subtle maple flavor to whatever you use it in. Makes me want to give this chocolate mug cake a try!
8. 5 Minute Healthy Chocolate Mug Cake
I can tell just by looking at the spongy, beautiful top of this chocolate mug cake that it’s as light and airy as any of the best cake I’ve tasted—Paleo, gluten-free or otherwise! If you don’t have flaxseed or flaxseed meal, you can substitute 1 tablespoon of whole chia seeds.
9. Instant Chocolate Fudge Mug Cake
Okay, so maybe it’s not exactly instant. But it’s very, very fast. I promise! This cake is delicious, moist, and totally indulgent. But without the stomachache and sugar coma! I would top this one with crushed pistachios, whipped coconut cream, and cashew butter. But that’s just me.
Photo: Live And Diet
Speaking of maple, this cake looks like it belongs on a fancy plate in a fancy restaurant where I can’t afford to eat. But it doesn’t, really! It belongs in your kitchen! It belongs in your mouth! And it’s so easy to make, and it tastes like banana maple heaven.
This cake is sailing right to the top of my must-make-it list right now. I’ve even got some beautiful raspberries in the fridge waiting to be used. I’m especially fond of the touch of cinnamon in this mug cake, as the spice is bound to bring out the subtleties in the fruit flavors.
Double chocolate? Sit down! This cake is a chocolate lover’s dream with almond and coconut flours, maple syrup, coconut oil, almond milk, cacao powder, and chocolate chips or chunks. That is absolutely it, my friends! Couldn’t be any easier…unless you get someone to make it for you.
Okay, so it’s not exactly a mug cake. But it’s close! This chocolate chip mug cookie-cake is make with just butter, coconut sugar, egg yolk, almond meal, and a sprinkling of chocolate chips. It’s yours in about 2 minutes, and contains a few lighter ingredient options.
Photo: Kim’s Cravings
If you’re looking for something more suitable for breakfast, give this pumpkin mug cake a try. It uses sweet potato puree also, and if you’d like a bit of a change, you can use fully one or the other and the recipe will still work. The maple syrup is the perfect sweetener here!
Matcha is just very finely ground-up green tea leaves, and has an earthy flavor and a beautiful green color. This matcha cake would be perfect topped with a spoonful of chocolate chips, or some chopped-up fruit of any kind! I like the strawberries suggested.
I love this recipe because I love the combination of coconut and chocolate—especially that this chocolate portion happens to be a frosting (we’ve already established how I feel about frosting). And I love all the healthy coconut ingredients, too!
Adding fruit to cake makes it healthier, right? Right? Well, let’s not stress about it, because these mug cakes are fairly healthy already, as far as cakes go. If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, just use cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg. Or, in a pinch, just use ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon!
Photo: Yaya Recommended
18. Chocolate Frosted Mug Cake
One downside to many mug cake recipes is that they tend to neglect the all-important frosting aspect of the cake. In my book, it’s almost a necessity. This one, however, includes a spiced avocado chocolate frosting that I actually just want to eat off a spoon.
Now, we all know Nutella isn’t exactly Paleo-friendly, and it’s definitely not healthy with all that sugar and the additives. But the flavor is chocolate and hazelnut, and we can reproduce that pretty easily in this chocolate hazelnut mug cake that’s Paleo and keto diet-approved.
20. Coconut Flour Nut Butter Mug Cake
This blogger advertises the cake as a peanut butter mug cake, but peanut butter isn’t allowed in Paleo eating. The good thing is that you can replace the peanut butter with any other nut or seed butter you like. I bet this would be amazing with a blend of cashew and almond butters!
This is a lazy cake because it’s perfect for lazy people. Hmm. Let me rephrase that. This cake is the perfect dessert for when you’re exhausted after your workout and you need something to both treat and replenish yourself. There, that’s better. And it has chocolate!
Photo: Nummy For My Tummy
How is it that we’ve been talking about cake for so long now, and this is the first time I’ve brought up caramel? That’s crazy! Thank goodness this recipe can remedy the problem and bring us this delicious caramel almond mug cake—there’s a caramel recipe included.
23. Sweet Potato Breakfast Cake
I love sweet potatoes—you can easily use them wherever you might otherwise use pumpkin, and they have an earthy, sweet, almost caramel-like flavor that is the perfect match for the maple syrup and pumpkin spice in this breakfast mug cake.
As catchy as it is to call something a mug muffin, this muffin could totally be a cake if it wanted to. Let’s just call it a blueberry mug cake, because it’s deliciously sweet, rich, and moist, without being overly sugary or packed with carbs. Everyone wins! And you can eat it for breakfast.
So many flavors, so little time. So why not combine them? This mug cake gives you everything you’d want in a dessert…at the same time. It’s cake, it’s chocolate, it’s coffee, it’s fruit, and it’s rich and moist with coconut milk and coconut oil. And it’s so, so good!
Photo: Plaid And Paleo
26. Double Chocolate Pumpkin Mug Cake
I think pumpkin and chocolate are often an underestimated flavor combination. You’ve got something spicy and earthy with something sweet and silky—it’s really the perfect combination. Make it happen with this chocolate pumpkin cake covered in a pumpkin glaze.
27. Cinnamon Apple 2 Minute Mug Cake
This mug cake has especially interesting base ingredients, like walnuts and shredded coconut! The crazy-good texture created by the walnuts, coconut, apple, and almond flour will make you forget that this mug cake doesn’t even have frosting.
If you’re looking for something more suitable for breakfast, give this pumpkin mug cake a try. It uses sweet potato puree also, and if you’d like a bit of a change, you can use fully one or the other and the recipe will still work. The maple syrup is the perfect sweetener here!
This cake reminds me of those chocolate chip teddy bear cookies I used to eat as a kid—way back before my gluten-free, processed food-free days. I’ll just have to make up a chocolate swirl mug cake for nostalgia’s sake, and this one will feel a whole lot better in my body.
Would like to get my kids, ages 2/12 and 6, to eat the Paleo way, but my son has nut allergies. What can I substitute for the almond flour?
Thanks
Sandy
Sandy, have you tried flax meal in place of the nut flour? It works well!
Thank you for including my matcha mug cake!
Great list! Thanks for including the mug cake from Rachel Cooks 🙂