A soft and fluffy single serving carrot cake in a mug is the perfect easy dessert for Easter, or for any other day of the year too!
Why you’ll love this carrot mug cake recipe
- It tastes like restaurant style carrot cake packed with sweet carrots and cinnamon, in the convenient form of a portion controlled mug cake.
- Whip up the entire cake in under five minutes, with no oven required.
- Dairy free, egg free, high protein, high in vitamin A, and just 120 calories.
- Enjoy as a quick and healthy snack, or add frosting and toppings and serve for a decadent after dinner treat. A single serving carrot cake recipe that’s made in the oven or microwave and is secretly good for you? It doesn’t get much better than that!
Also try this reader favorite Chocolate Mug Cake
Step by step recipe video
Carrot cake in a mug ingredients
Flour – You need a fourth cup of flour. I like whole grain spelt flour because it adds nutrition and gives you a lighter texture than whole wheat flour.
Oat flour, cup-for-cup gluten free flour, or white all purpose flour work as well. Almond flour does technically work, but the cake will crumble so it is best to eat this low carb version straight from the mug.
Carrots – It sounds funny, but the easiest option is to buy carrot puree in the baby food aisle of your local grocery store. Alternatively, you can puree canned carrots or steam and then puree peeled fresh carrots in a food processor.
Sweetener – Choose any granulated sugar or granulated sugar free substitute. I like to use minimally processed or unrefined sugar, such as turbinado. White sugar, coconut sugar, or xylitol are also good options. Substituting pure maple syrup or honey will yield a somewhat gummy texture, so keep that in mind if you wish to use a liquid sweetener.
Milk of choice – Use any milk in your refrigerator, including plant based varieties like almond milk or coconut milk. You will also need a tablespoon of oil (coconut oil or vegetable oil), almond butter, or an additional tablespoon of milk for a low fat mug cake.
Vanilla – Look for pure vanilla extract instead of imitation, because it gives you the most natural vanilla flavor. If using vanilla flavored milk, you may omit the vanilla extract.
Spices and dry ingredients – The recipe also calls for half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, a fourth teaspoon of baking powder to help with rising, and an eighth teaspoon each of salt and baking soda. Feel free to throw in a small pinch of ground nutmeg or ginger if desired.
How to make the cake
- Begin by greasing a small mug or two small ramekins well. Set aside.
- If you want to bake the mug cake in an oven instead of a microwave, preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit or 176° Celsius.
- Add the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, sugar or sweetener, and salt directly into the mug. Stir very well. (If using ramekins instead of a mug, simply combine all ingredients in a cereal sized bowl, then smooth the batter into the prepared dishes.)
- Now stir in the milk, optional oil or almond butter, vanilla extract, and pureed carrots until just evenly mixed.
- Microwave on high power until soft and fluffy. Time will vary by wattage of your machine, and mine takes around two minutes total. Alternatively, bake in an oven safe dish for fifteen minutes or until fully cooked in the center.
- Enjoy straight from the mug. Or let the carrot mug cake cool before going around the sides with a knife to pop the cake out onto a plate.
- If you want to make a cute double layer cake, carefully slice through the middle and frost each layer. Garnish with shredded carrot, diced pecans or walnuts, and raisins as you wish.
Frosting the mini carrot cake
The recipe tastes amazing topped with Coconut Butter or Coconut Whipped Cream.
Or I like to make a basic cream cheese frosting recipe by whipping 2 ounces cream cheese with 1 ounce butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar or monk fruit, 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, and a few drops milk of choice if needed. (Use plant based cream cheese and butter for a vegan cream cheese frosting.)
This is simply a small batch of the frosting I use on my Carrot Cake Bars.
Carrot cake and frosting are meant for each other. But it need not be cream cheese! You can use almond butter, cashew butter, vanilla yogurt, or a dusting of powdered sugar if preferred.
Carrot Cake In A Mug
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup flour (30g) (or here's a Keto Carrot Cake)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp sugar or sugar free xylitol (24g)
- 3 tbsp cup carrot puree (jarred or steamed from fresh) (45g)
- 1 tbsp water (15g)
- 1 tbsp oil or almond butter, or additional water (15g)
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- 1. Grease a small mug or two small ramekins well.
- 2. If baking in the oven instead of a microwave mug cake, preheat the oven to to 350° Fahrenheit (176° Celsius).
- 3. Stir dry ingredients in a cereal bowl or directly in the mug. Then stir in wet ingredients until evenly mixed.
- 4. Microwave on high until soft and fluffy. Time will vary based on wattage. Mine takes around 2 minutes. Or bake in an oven safe dish for 15 minutes or until cooked through the center.
- 5. Enjoy hot out of the mug, or allow the cake to cool before going around the sides with a knife and popping onto a plate.
- 6. For a fun double layer carrot cake in a mug, slice through the middle and frost with cream cheese frosting (recipe included above). Garnish with shredded carrots, chopped walnuts, and raisins if desired.
Video
Notes
More easy mug desserts
Katie, just made and in the process of consuming Carrot Cake for one (used canned pumpkin in place of carrots). Excellent! Topped it with Mimiccreme Healthy Top, a dairy-free soy-free whipping cream product made from almonds and cashews. I don’t even bother to whip it. Just top your favorite cake with a heaping tablespoon (50 calories, 3.5 g fat, and 4 g carbs). What a decadent treat!
I served mine with maple sweetened coconut cream. REDIC.
I made this and loved how easy and yummy it was!!
Hey there, just wanted to let you know that your nutritionals for this are wayyy off. The spelt flour ALONE has about 120 calories for 1/4 cup, so 70 calories for the whole thing is far too low. FYI, caloriecount generally puts the calorie counts far too low, so I would recommend calculating nutrition info yourself (based on package information) if you want accurate numbers. Love the recipes though!
Hi Carolyn,
Please read the entire post. The nutrition information is correct :).
Thank you for my daily dose of food porn – and for including weight watchers points!
Hi. I’m confused about the nutritional information for this recipe. The flour itself is around 100 calories? Yet the entire recipe is 140 calories? I made a version of this using all stevia and it came in at 291 calories.. Confused…..
Can u give a milk free frosting recipe…I can get around the sugar by using palm sugar and agave and honey..Jill
Hey Katie! I just discovered your blog and am so excited to try your recipes! I`ll start from this one and then the 1-minute chocolate cake. But I have a doubt: why do you use spelt flour? I honestly never heard of it before and seems like no one in my country has either (I`m Argentinian and I have been asking in commerces with no success.) I`d rather not use common white flour because I`d like to make it as healthy and light as possible
Do you have a recipe for your carrot cake but for a larger group? Perfect for a birthday cake
For a “recipe” for freezing eggs, 2 tblsp. of well blended eggs = 1 egg. So if you’re wanting to use 1/2 egg, you could beat up an egg until it’s well blended and use 1 tblsp. of the mix. I freeze eggs in ice cube trays, putting 2 tblsp. in each cavity, and after they are frozen, I just pop them in a freezer bag. Then I always have eggs on hand to bake with. They can be used in scrambled eggs and omelets, too. 🙂 Whether using them in baking or cooking (as in an omelet), they should always be thawed before adding them to other ingredients. If blending up a dozen eggs, add a pinch of salt to the batch. Be sure to account for that in these “little” recipes. I’m a disabled senior citizen who can’t just easily “run out to the store” if I’m missing an ingredient. This method has come in handy, too, when the eggs are nearing their “Use By” date and I know that I won’t be feeling like doing much cooking or baking before they go bad, or have a planned hospital stay. I guess it turns out most anything can be frozen. Who knew??!!
Katie, I have been following your amazing and creative blog for about two years and I can’t express enough how much of a genius you are. Also, you are so beautiful! Love your creative recipes!
Katie – what a great way to eat one bite. I’m going to try it at our next party!!
Katie, I have been drooling over your recipes for months, and I finally decided I had to try one! I’m vegan and competing in my first figure competition in six weeks. I haven’t had dessert for almost two months, but I am slowly savoring this little gem of a dessert with a thin spreading of the frosting (I used soy flour for the high protein content with no problems at all!) Thanks for posting so many things that are quick, easy, nutritious and delicious!
P.S. I have my eye on the chocolate cake batter milkshake to celebrate the night the competition is over! 🙂
hi katie! i love your blog and am a huge advocate of what youre doing here. i was wondering if there is a way that you could post the nutritional information with the recipes for those of us who are calorie counting. i know these are going to be better option than the alternative, but im trying to inspire my fellow dieters to choose your recipes and we are all concerned about not knowing the nutritional information. feel free to private message me on facebook if its easier 🙂 i love what youre doing, keep it up!
I just made one and the whole house smells delicious…
But I have to wait until dinner time to eat the little carrot cake! 🙁
That’s terrible!
Just made this and it was awesome! I had tons of fine carrot shavings from juicing carrots, and found this recipe. I used my stoneware egg cooker and doubled the microwave time. Turned out amazing!