People say this fudgy chocolate mug cake recipe is the best mug cake they’ve ever tried. And you can make it in the microwave or oven!
The best chocolate cake in a mug
This is the chocolate mug cake recipe for chocolate lovers.
Rich, decadent, and delicious, the recipe has over two thousand positive reviews from readers who’ve made the chocolate cake and absolutely love it.
So if you’ve been disappointed with other chocolate mug cake recipes in the past, definitely be sure to give this one a try, because it will not disappoint!
Readers also love this Brownie in a Mug
Microwave chocolate mug cake recipe
I could tell you that I labored in front of a hot oven all day baking this cake.
But the reality is that the chocolate mug cake took only one minute.
Yes, really.
And it is made with pantry staple ingredients you can always keep on hand, with no eggs required.
Any time you are craving chocolate, now all you have to do is head to the kitchen and whip up this easy chocolate dessert in the microwave.
You can even portion out the dry ingredients ahead of time and store the chocolate cake mix in small Ziploc bags so the recipe will be even quicker to make when you’re ready to eat.
It’s like chocolate cake meal prep!
For a larger version, try this Vegan Chocolate Cake
Chocolate mug cake flavors
Chocolate Peanut Butter: Omit the oil in the recipe below, and stir in one or two tablespoons of peanut butter (or almond butter) in its place.
Nutella Mug Cake: Instead of oil, add a tablespoon of your favorite chocolate hazelnut spread. I like this Homemade Nutella Recipe. Top with more Nutella!
Chocolate Peppermint: Stir a fourth teaspoon of pure peppermint extract into the liquid ingredients before stirring everything together to form a batter.
Dark Chocolate Coconut: Use coconut oil, and top the finished mug cake with dark chocolate chips, shredded coconut, and a scoop of Coconut Ice Cream.
Mocha Mug Cake: Stir half a teaspoon of instant coffee granules, regular or decaf, in with the cake’s dry ingredients.
Chocolate Orange: Add one teaspoon of orange zest to the mug before stirring.
What is your dream single serving mug cake flavor? If there are any other ideas you’d like to see that I do not have listed above, definitely let me know!
Frosting options
Feel free to decorate your single serving chocolate cake with shredded coconut, chopped walnuts or pecans, mini chocolate chips, hot fudge sauce or caramel sauce.
I used this homemade Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.
Or you can frost the cake however you wish, such as with store bought or homemade vanilla or chocolate frosting, powdered sugar or melted chocolate, sliced bananas, strawberries, cherries, blueberries, or raspberry jam.
It’s also wonderful topped with Coconut Whipped Cream or Almond Milk Ice Cream.
Chocolate mug cake recipe video
Above, watch the step-by-step video
How to make a chocolate mug cake
Step One: Start by combining all of the dry ingredients in a cereal bowl or small dish. Stir very well, to ensure the salt and baking powder are evenly distributed.
Step Two: Add liquid, stir to form a chocolate cake batter, and pour the batter into a microwave or oven safe dish, ramekin, or coffee mug.
Especially if you are not planning to eat the cake straight out of the mug, be sure to grease the dish well before adding the batter.
Step Three: Microwave for thirty to forty seconds. Mine is always fluffy and cooked through after this time, but you may need to cook longer depending on your microwave’s wattage.
Or bake the mug cake in the oven for fourteen minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out mostly clean.
Step Four: Frost the top of the chocolatey dessert and enjoy. To store leftovers… Wait, what leftovers?
Mug cake recipe ingredients
Here’s what you need to make the single serving recipe: cocoa, flour, sweetener, salt, baking powder, milk of choice, pure vanilla extract, and oil or banana.
Cocoa powder – Use regular unsweetened cocoa powder for the first tablespoon of cocoa. Dutch cocoa powder, hot chocolate mix, or additional regular unsweetened cocoa can be used for the two teaspoons.
Flour – The recipe works well with white flour, oat flour, all purpose gluten free flour, or spelt flour (my personal preference). I have not tried it with any other options such as whole wheat flour or pastry flour.
A keto mug cake version with almond flour is also included in the recipe box below.
Sweetener – This can be granulated sugar or unrefined coconut sugar or a liquid option like pure maple syrup or honey.
For a sugar free mug cake, use xylitol or granulated erythritol. Stevia technically works, but the flavor and texture are better if you go with one of the other options listed here.
Fat source – I think the cake tastes best made with coconut oil. My second favorite choice is peanut butter or almond butter. Vegetable oil is also fine to use.
If you want a low fat or fat free mug cake, many readers have written in to say it works to substitute applesauce, Greek yogurt, sweet potato, pumpkin, or mashed banana. I much prefer the taste with some fat added, but that is a personal taste preference.
Vegan chocolate mug cake
The mug cake is already naturally eggless, which means it is super easy to create a dairy free and vegan version.
Just use a plant based milk, such as coconut milk, soy milk, or almond milk. If topping with chocolate chips, ice cream, or frosting, choose vegan options for those as well.
For a gluten free chocolate mug cake, use either oat flour or gluten free all purpose flour. If you experiment with any other gluten free flours, let me know how it goes.
You may also like these Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Mug Cake
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 tsp Dutch cocoa powder or additional regular
- 3 tbsp flour spelt, white, oat, or all purpose gluten free (or try this Keto Mug Cake Recipe)
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp sweetener of choice
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 2 1/2 tsp oil or nut butter (While I much prefer the version with fat, many commenters say they love substituting applesauce or mashed banana here)
- 3 tbsp milk of choice
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- How to make a chocolate mug cake recipe: Combine dry ingredients and mix very, very well. Add liquid, stir, then transfer to a little dish, ramekin, or even a coffee mug. Either microwave 30-60 seconds (time will depend on your microwave's wattage) OR cook in a preheated 350 F oven for about 14 minutes. If you don’t want to eat it straight out of the dish, be sure to spray your dish first and then wait for the mug cake to cool before trying to remove it. Frosting ideas are listed above in the post!View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
Easy Chocolate Dessert Recipes
Congratulations Katie!! You totally deserve this honor. I found your blog on Pinterest and LOVE the single-lady recipes you have. I would like to second that request for a healthy granola recipe.
I will definitely have to work on it! 🙂
This is the reason why you win awards! I just made this and it tasted amazing. This is restaurant quality cake! Mmmm..it was so good.
Wow, thank you so much! That really means a lot to me :).
1 was not enough. i had to make another one. you are my savior!! but i didnt have any thing to make the frosting so i just melted chocolate chips. probably not as good as the frosting but still yummy:0
Mmmm I actually can’t think of ANYthing better than melted chocolate chips!
Congrats Katie! Well done (and deserved!)
But MORE than that—I have to say that these one-minute cake photos are BY FAR the best ones you have ever done. The difference struck me immediately. The soft focus in the background, the sharp focus on the cake, the lighting accenting the frosting, having a bite taken out of the cake (a few crumbs would actually accent the photo as well…deconstruction and a bit of messiness actually really enhance food photos and are both popular techniques with many food stylists). However, I think what made these jump off the page is the plain setup, background and simple, white plates. I know you like to really coordinate, decorate and style photos but the more clean and simple the better (I know..it’s hard to resist sometimes!).
So, again, kudos on the award but especially this latest set of pics (and this is coming from a photo editor : ) )
Oh wow, that REALLY means a lot to me, Rebecca. I can’t even tell you how much. I feel like I struggle so much with my photos; I’m good with photoshop, but I’d love to get better with the actual photography so I don’t need to edit so much. Someday it would be awesome to take a class or attend a workshop, because there is so much I need to learn and it’s not always easy to teach myself! I risk the chance of repeating the same mistake over and over (and thus ingraining it in my mind, which is hard to un-learn).
And lol I’ve definitely (finally!) figured out that white plates are much better than the scary-colorful plates I used to use! Now if only I could figure out ISO… 😉
In it’s simplest terms, a low ISO setting works best in bright light (i.e. outdoors on a sunny day) and a high ISO setting is more appropriate for low-light situations (indoors without a flash, nighttime shots, etc.).
*That being said, it is best to use a lower ISO whenever possible (the trade-off with a higher ISO is that the picture will be gritty/grainy..NOT what you want in a food photo!) Although using a flash will allow you to use a lower ISO, a flash with food photography typically does not give a great result. So, making sure that you have plenty of (non-yellow!) lighting OR using *lots* of daylight is how you want to go about this. Many of the best food photos I’ve seen on blogs are even shot outside (no matter the temperature!). As a general rule, the most flattering photos are taken on a slightly overcast day (the clouds diffuse the light). I (unfortunately!) don’t get to a lot of food photography myself so I can’t speak to this from experience—but I would assume this works best for food as well. If it is too sunny there will be lots of “hot spots” and probably give you much more contrast than you want (basically, some really bright, overexposed, blown-out spots and some really dark, underexposed low spots).
As with anything, it is important to play around and find your own style. In terms of styling, look through LOTS of food blogs and cooking magazines to find what you like (and what you don’t like. Don’t underestimate how much finding a photo you DON’T like can help you hone in on what you DO like). I know you said you don’t typically read lots of cooking blogs but I would DEFINITELY start if you want to take your photos skills up a notch. Trust me, the more you see the better you will get (the caveat is that you really need to pay attention to WHAT you like and don’t like—I even take notes and print/cut out examples)
Hope this helps!
You are so sweet to take the time to help me, Rebecca! I guess I just get ISO and shutter speed mixed up when I look at my camera. I usually try to shoot in “aperature priority,” which means the ISO sets itself automatically. As for the yellow lighting… that might be my biggest problem! My parents’ entire house is filled with either yellow or beige walls! (And my new place doesn’t get very good light at all, sadly.)
What I did for these shots was to actually go in and move my camera’s white balance settings away from the yellow and red.
You’re definitely right about the overcast days for food photos! Unfortunately, Texas is usually super-sunny! I should probably try to be more organized and get outside earlier in the day (like 8am!) before that harsh Texas sun comes up.
I don’t read a lot of food blogs, but I DO peruse foodgawker almost daily! And my friends make fun of me because I’ll always want to flip through the Taste of Home magazines instead of the tabloids while we’re waiting in line at places like Target. For my birthday this year, they got me a whole stack of those magazines with the punch card recipes!
Eek, sorry for writing you a novel of a response! Although I’m obviously a novice when it comes to photography, I still love talking about it. Thanks for listening to my ramblings :).
No worries! I am horribly verbose myself…it is quite embarrassing actually : (
Shutter speed is how long the shutter stays open and ISO is how sensitive the “film” is to light. All variable settings (f-stop, shutter speed, ISO) play out a bit differently on digital cameras than on film but the general idea is the same. If you have a low ISO (ex. 100) you need the shutter to stay open longer in order to get a good exposure. (And, likewise, for a higher ISO the shutter does not need to be open quite as long).
I learned photography before digital cameras got really popular (Seriously, I am not that old…but I did learn before everyone had super-fancy digital cameras!) so ISO was more of a pain because you have to decide what ISO film you wanted to buy/load into your camera and then couldn’t change it unless you were done with the entire roll. Digital cameras make the whole process of changing mid-stream easy peas-y!
Feel free to email me any time with questions (or if you want feedback)…I am actually starting a wellness website so we could swap pointers. (I left the best email to reach me at..the other one I was using to leave comments with sometimes spoofs (ugh!)).
Congrats! I voted for you and LOVE your recipes and blog. You are beautiful talented young lady
Congratulations! I made this cake for myself as soon as I saw it – thanks! I am sharing this one 🙂
Congrats!!!
I just made this cake, and it’s the best individual cake I’ve tried yet because it’s moist and it doesn’t dry up. Mine didn’t rise much, but maybe that’s because I added mashed banana instead of oil, and a bit of agave syrup instead of the packet of additional sweetener. I made the frosting too, but it was just banana + cocoa + agave + vanilla and it was yummy! I calculated the calories for my version and it was 250 calories for the whole thing + icing. Crazy!
Thanks for being an awesome blogger, Katie 🙂 and i hope to see more of these individual cakes!
Congratulations Katie!
Delicious recipe, my dear! I sprinkled brown sugar on top rather than put frosting on and it was very good.
A better way to spend a minute? Honestly? No. 😀 Spelt flour is gluten free, right? And you dont even need xanthan gum? Awesome! I know what I’ll be doing once I find me some spelt flour…
I have a friend who eats spelt flour and still says he’s gluten free… but if you really have Celiac Disease, spelt flour is NOT actually gluten free. (I *think* it has less gluten than regular wheat flour, but I’m not sure of that.) I do know it works with peanut flour (which is GF). And I’m sure it would work with a gf mix (such as Arrowhead Mills) too. But if you’re not gluten-free, my favorite way is with spelt flour :).