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
i love carrot cake, but the frosting on it is what totally makes it for me!! your single lady recipes are awesome – love them!
Haha I saw the title of this post and literally said out loud: “God bless you.” I am excited to try this one!!!
I’m so excited for this recipe! I gave up chocolate for Lent and the other night I was really in the mood for a mug cake, but all of the recipes I had for mug cakes were made with chocolate! This sounds amazing. Can’t wait to try it out!
I LOVE carrot cake … mostly because I love the cream cheese frosting. 😉 I love these mini cakes for one. Having too much cake around the house is always so tempting! 🙂
Carrot cake is my FAVORITE cake!
LOVE carrot cake! This will be a MUST TRY ASAP recipe!
I actually only started loving carrot cake as a vegan. Generally I enjoy the ones I make.
Yesterday I made the peanut butter frosting for the first time and still have some leftovers on hand so I have options! I never would have thought about peanut butter frosting on a carrot cake but I can totally see that working.
It is SO cute. I love the layered look.
Well, we always used to do raw carrot sticks dipped in pb… so why not? 😉
I agree, pb + carrots = something good! I love dipping carrots in pb…….could make that my meal sometimes…
I ADORE carrot cake!!! Love, love, love it! (but only if there are no raisins involved!)
I am TOTALLY with you on the raisins.
Give me all your raisins!!
I love carrot cake – but almost never think to make/eat it. This looks so delicious!
Looks good, I did want to let you know the WW points are not accurate (old points looked at calories, fat, fiber only…new points plus looks at total carbs, fiber, protein, fat and to my knowledge they haven’t released the formula–so you have to use a WW calculator to get the points plus value, whereas the old way you could quickly calculate it yourself). WW it’s probably 2 points plus for 1 serving and 4 points plus for 2 servings…
Oh no 🙁
I was so proud of myself lol (Sad?)
I googled “how to calculate weight watchers points for a recipe” and found the formula you mentioned–the old one. I’ll go edit my post now… thanks for letting me know!
It’s 2.
>.>
*runs away*
2’s better than 5 or 6 or 7 which what one usually runs at per slice
Thanks for mentioning WW points. I would love to make some of these, but have no idea how to figure the points. I know Katie doesn’t include ingredient percentages to calculate. Is there a way that you do it?
Thanks, I just saw on the Pumpkin Cupcake recipe that there is a nutritional value. Will all of your recipes have this in the future?
They all have had it listed since at least the beginning of this year 🙂
You just made my day! Looks amazing!! 🙂
What would happen if I grated raw carrot really finely and used that instead? I had no idea you could even get canned carrots! 🙂
I think you need the pureed carrots for extra moistness. But as stated in the recipe, you can use fresh (peeled) carrots– just steam them very well first.
I just made this with raw carrots and it turned out fine. I grated them on the finest side of my box grater (skipped the blending step) and added a little extra soy milk. I also added raisins (my favorite part of carrot cake) and frosting (tofutti cream cheese plus powdered sugar) and made a delicious dessert.
I used a microplane and grated 1/2 carrot and it was fantastic!
these are delicious! I added 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg, used a heaping tablespoon of sugar and 3 tablespoons of milk and they were perfect.. thank you!!
My sister made her carrot cakes with a jar of baby food.
Yum! Does the nutritional info include the frosting? I <3 your blog.
No, as there is no specific amount of frosting listed (and you can frost with whatever recipe you wish).
wow, I wish you had posted this yesterday! I just made a full carrot cake because I’ve been craving it for Easter. And now I have a whole lot of carrot cake to eat – your single servings would have been helpful! I’ll have to save this for my next carrot cake craving!
Is there any way to make carrot cake chocolate??
I was thinking about it! I’ve never heard of it, but why not? I’m going to try with cocoa powder!! And maybe some chocolate chips…
I’ve done it. I just added a buttload of cocoa to a regular carrot cake recipe. It ended up tasting like a fusion of chocolate cake, ginger bread and carrot cake. It was awesome. Try it sometime =D
Good to know! I definitely will try it!
Yes, your WW points are inaccurate, unless you are referring to the old system and not Points Plus. On the current system, based on your nutrition facts, the points are 2 for one cake and 4 for the entire recipe.
Thanks for letting me know, Helen! According to another commenter, I WAS using the old system: I googled “how to calculate weight watchers points for a recipe” and found the formula with calories, fiber, and fat. I’m going to edit my post… but can you tell me how you calculate points based on the new system? I don’t know anything about Weight Watchers!
You can only calculate it with their proprietary calculator, unfortunately. With the old system you could make a really good guess but not so much anymore. It still uses fat/protein/carbs/fiber but you just plug those values in their calculator. You’d either need to pick up a calculater (like $6) or have a member calculate the values for you.
Oh ok thanks! I might have to get a calculator… I don’t understand what Weight Watcher points mean (or how many you’re supposed to have in a day), but a lot of people ask for that info to be included. I think spending $6 is perfectly acceptable if it’ll help people! 🙂
Thank you, Katie … having the WW+ points would be extremely helpful!
They have a sale on the site right now! They’re normally $12, but they’re on sale for $6 right now. 🙂 Here’s the link:
http://store.weightwatchers.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product2_10151_10051_11960_-1_12106_12106_12106_ProductDisplayErrorView
The downside of the calculator is that you’d have to know the carb, fat, fiber, and protein content of your recipes. So, you’d probably have to use a free service online somewhere to calculate the full nutrition info first.
If you can’t view that, let me know… I’m a subscriber, and I LOVE your blog, so I’d totally send you one. 🙂 Also, just for a snapshot of WW–the points you can have in a day are based on your height, age, and gender. So, it’s different for everybody. For example, I’m a 23 year old female who is 5’4″. I get 26 points per day. Points are calculated by carb, fat, fiber, and protein content. Everybody also gets 30-40 extra points per week that they can use whenever, and earn extra points for activity. 🙂
Aw Sarah, thank you so much!
Someone actually left a link with a new formula in a comment below, so I’m going to try that out first.
Thanks for explaining it to me as well… I always thought everyone got the same amount of points. (See? I told you I had absolutely no clue how it works ;).)
This looks divine! I love carrot cake overnight oats or breakfast cookies. 🙂