This microwave chocolate mug cake recipe is the easiest and quickest single-serving dessert. It is rich, fudgy and decadent!
I have finally found the very best chocolate mug cake recipe. It is loaded with chocolate flavor and has a great fudgy texture. And the best part is that you can make this decadent single-serve dessert in the microwave in one minute!
What is cake in a mug?
It’s the answer to your late night chocolate craving! Mug cakes are a single-serve dessert you cook in a coffee mug in the microwave. It’s like a chocolate lava cake you’d get at a fancy restaurant, but way less time-consuming.
My sweet tooth can get pretty fierce sometimes. Whiny children, long days and most remodeling projects are usually what bring it on. Sometimes I just want a treat and I want it NOW. Can you relate?
That’s where this amazing microwave chocolate mug cake comes in. A few years ago I tested a bunch of different mug cake recipes (read about that HERE).
Most of them were different levels of gross. The recipes that contained eggs were especially weird. The egg made the finished dessert rubbery. Cooking a dessert in the microwave seemed like an impossible dream.
Then I found this chocolate mug cake recipe and it is a true gem. It’s almost like cheating… you get a decadent ooey-gooey treat exploding with chocolatey goodness in less than a minute without turning on your oven or having to bake anything!
This is not a light and fluffy cake. It is more like a lava cake. It’s dense, fudgy, and super rich.
How do you make chocolate cake in a cup?
It’s so simple. Grab a microwave-safe mug and a few basic baking ingredients to form a basic cake batter, stir them up, then microwave the ingredients right in the mug. In one minute or less, you’ll have an amazing dessert just the right size for one person. This means you won’t have a mixing bowl to wash. Just one mug and one spoon. Yay!
How do you make a chocolate Nutella mug cake?
That’s what’s so great about this recipe. There are endless variations! To make a Nutella mug cake, use the exact same recipe above, but stir in 1 teaspoon of Nutella before cooking in the microwave. So easy!
Want to know some of my other favorite chocolate mug cake variations? They are just as easy to make, but it’s fun to come up with different flavor combinations. To make these mug cake variations, simply stir up the batter, add the extra ingredients, then cook like normal!
Mug Cake Variations
- Peanut Butter Lover. Get the recipe here!
- Chocolate Covered Berry. Add 1 teaspoon raspberry or strawberry jam.
- Gimme S’More. Add 10 mini marshmallows and a sprinkling of graham cracker crumbs.
- A La Mode. One scoop of ice cream on top after it’s done cooking and you’ve got yourself a rockin’ dessert!
- Caramel Lover. Add two square caramel candies or top the cake with caramel sauce after cooking.
- Mint To Be. Sprinkle with mint baking chips or crushed up candy canes.
- Chocoholic. Add a handful of chocolate chips or pieces of a chopped up candy bar.
Can you tell that I’ve made this dessert a lot? Just you wait… once you’ve tried it, you’ll fall in love! Don’t believe me? Read the recipe reviews in the comments. Readers agree that this mug cake is amazing!
If you’d like to try making a vanilla mug cake instead of chocolate, this is the very best vanilla mug cake recipe!
Or try my Pumpkin Spice Mug Cake for a perfect fall dessert.
Chocolate Mug Cake Recipe Ingredient Substitutions
- It’s okay to substitute butter for margarine. They work interchangeably, but butter tastes better if you’ve got it.
- For a lower calorie option, replace the regular sugar with monk fruit or stevia granulated sweetener instead. These sweeteners usually have substitution suggestions written on the bags.
- You could use coconut sugar or even brown sugar instead of white sugar for a slightly different taste. Honey would be delicious, but might mess up the texture.
- There is no milk in this recipe, so hurray for my dairy-free friends! No need to worry about substituting almond milk, coconut milk, oat milk or anything like that.
- If you want to make this recipe gluten free, I’ve heard good things about Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Flour. It is a 1-1 product, so you would not need to change the recipe measurements.
- The recipe as written (with no added chocolate chips) has 528 calories.
- To make the recipe vegan, use coconut oil or canola oil instead of butter. This will change the taste and texture, so know that going into it.
Chocolate Mug Cake Recipe Video
Chocolate Mug Cake
Prep Time 5 minutes minsCook Time 1 minute min
Quickly satisfy your chocolate craving with this easy single-serve chocolate cake in a mug. Print Share Rate
Equipment
- 1 coffee mug
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup white granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 handful chocolate chips, optional
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a coffee mug. Add water, vanilla and salt and stir until smooth.
- Add sugar, cocoa powder and flour and stir until all the lumps are out. If you have a mini whisk, you can use that, but a spoon usually works just fine.
- Sprinkle a handful of chocolate chips into the batter, if desired.
- Cook in the microwave for 30-40 seconds. If you want less "lava" and more cake you can cook it for 10 seconds more. You may have to adjust the cooking time since all microwaves cook at different speeds.
- Enjoy while still warm.
Notes
I’ve noticed a huge difference in flavor depending on what type of cocoa powder I use. I recently cheaped out and bought a weird off-brand. Major buyer’s remorse!! The higher quality good cocoa powder definitely tastes better.
Looking for more amazing chocolate dessert recipes?
Try my Perfect Double Chocolate Cookies! They are the best chocolate cookie I have ever had!
Or make a pan of my favorite Chocolate Marshmallow Brownies and share the chocolate goodness with the whole family.
Or check out this mega list of the very best chocolate desserts.