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
70 calories? am i dreaming?
Pinned this!
There is something so uniquely “spring-like” about carrot cake, and I have been craving it like crazy lately! This is perfect so I don’t go making (and eating) a whole cake. Thank you, Katie!
Oh sweet bunny rabbits, carrot cake is my favorite!
I was just wondering about the nutritional information, though. I know you said that it’s based off of half the cake, but that still doesn’t seem right to me. This part here, “…for 140 calories, 1 gram fat” when the ingredients list 1 tablespoon of oil.1 tbsp of olive oil has 120 calories and 14 grams of fat. I’m guessing that those stats are for a cake with no oil and just more milk? Thanks!
From what I’ve seen in cookbooks, it’s standard practice when calculating nutritional info to use the lower of the two items if two are given (such as with the oil and milk).
Sorry to be confusing!
Nah, it’s not a problem, don’t worry about it, I had a feeling that was it, but I just wanted to double check anyway! Thank you!
That looks mighty tasty! I also thought you might be interested to know that (according to my local whole foods co-op) April 3rd is National Chocolate Mousse Day. They have some vegan/gf mousse, but I’m betting it’s not as good as your recipe… which I am making this afternoon.
Ooo I need to celebrate!
WOW! This looks awesome… sounds like the perfect recipe for an Easter treat!
Hey Katie!! I love this recipe, but I was wondering if your calorie count was off? Or if you were not counting the oil and sugar? I mean just half the flour would be 55 calories so…. Sorry 🙁 I do not mean to be a bother, just a little curious.
Now I’m curious too where/how the nutrition is calculated. I just threw the recipe into my WW recipe calculator (only the ingredients that affect points, so sugar, egg, flour, oil, milk) and it comes up with 9 points for the whole recipe, or 5 pts if you eat half. So the nutrition seems to be way off, unfortunately.
Nope, the nutrition is not off. As is standard practice for nutrition facts, when two items are listed in an ingredient list, the lower of the two is used for calculations :).
(So milk, not oil)
Katie, WOW!!! Just wow!!!!! A friend recommended that I make your deep dish chocolate chip cookie pie, which I did last night (amazing!) and after staying up WAY past my bedtime reading your delicious recipes one after another, I didn’t think it could get any more awesome. But then it did, with this carrot cake!!! My husband is a huge carrot cake fan, so he’ll love it for sure, and I justlearned about the wide world of egg substitutes from the comment section here. From a fellow Texan (now on the East Coast), I send you a BIG THANK YOU!!!!!
Wow, thank you so much for such a sweet comment!
As for the egg thing, I recommend the ener-g stuff to people who aren’t even vegan, because it’s just so gosh-darn simple. It yields a ton of servings, keeps for years, and you don’t have to worry about running out of eggs ;). I really should try chia “eggs” one of these days, though.
Why am I away from a kitchen right now?? I need to make this! Carrot cake is the bomb!
Oh my gosh. I’m making this for my snack this afternoon. I’m pairing it with my first batch of your peanut butter eggs…and for breakfast I made some of your blueberry pancakes. I’m just dousing my day in chocolate the Katie way!!!
What a delicious cake! I love how easy it is. The perfect Easter treat! I love carrot cake too, especially the frosting. 🙂
Katie!!!!
This is my new favorite recipe of yours! As soon as I saw it, I CURSED myself for not having canned carrots in the house so I could make it right that very moment. But then I realized I did have fresh ones, and so I boiled them and made that cake right away. I LOVED it!
My hubby loved it too, which is shocking to me! I can’t believe I got a vegetable into him, and he actually liked it! Your blog has changed our lives. THANK YOU!
And now I know what I’ll be having for breakfast every single day for the rest of the year and beyond ;).
I never knew I was a carrot cake fan until one day out of the blue I got a craving for carrot cake muffins, looked up a recipe and devoured half the batch in one day!
This made me laugh.
Carrot cake sort of hit me the same way…and yes, I have had those days in which 1/2 or more of a batch of something is suddenly gone. 🙂 (Zucchini bread being one of those somethings…on that subject, I think when I make this carrot cake I will add walnuts!)
OH.MY.YUM!!!! The picture is super cute too! Can’t wait to try them!
You are truly a genious Katie! Carrot cake is my favourite by far but I thought I would miss the icing. Am going to make this and top with melted coconut butter. Thank you!
This is my dream come true!!!! I have been craving carrot cake for weeks and now I can finally give in!!! Thank you so much Katie, you’re awesome 🙂
Hey Katie! Not sure if someone else already called it out, but I calculated the nutritional stats based on the new WW points system. It would be 2 points for half the recipe (4 points for both cakes) which is still really awesome!!! 🙂