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
This was REALLY good! I love the single servings because I always eat more than I should with goodies:) I used coconut oil and added walnuts on the top. Super good Katie. Thanks again!
I’m so glad you tried it! I love the idea to add walnuts… next time, I’m trying that for sure :).
You can get the Points Plus formula (effective Nov 2010) on wikipedia …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weight_Watchers#Formulas
Thank you so much for posting this! Now I don’t need to find a calculator :).
Hey Katie,
So first of all, I’ve been a reader of your blog for a long time, and I’m always impressed by the creativity and imagination you put in your recipes (and the beautiful photos as well!) However, I’ve always been bothered by one thing: the calorie counts for your recipes are NEVER, ever even close to what I, or online calorie calculators, estimate them to be. Your counts are almost always lower by at least 50%. For example, for this given recipe – even eyeballing it, there is NO way the entire thing comes out to be 140 calories and .5g of fat. The 1 tbsp of oil is already, on its own, around 120 calories or so. Another 110-120 calories for the 1/4 cup flour… When I plugged this recipe into an online recipe calculator (caloriecount.com), I got 271 calories for it (and that’s using xylitol, not brown sugar).
Now don’t get me wrong – I personally am not on a diet and don’t care enough to count calories for myself – I find that exercise and fresh fruits/veggies do a much better job of keeping me healthy. However, you always state that you post calorie counts for the many readers who DO care about them, and you also say you often try to keep recipes healthy for that same reason. Given this, I’m very confused by why/how you keep quoting such drastically lower calorie counts for many of your recipes. How do you calculate them?? If you’re counting 1 tbsp more milk rather than 1tbsp oil for this particular recipe, for example, shouldn’t you state that when you post the nutrition facts/calorie info for the recipe?
I hope you don’t take this post as a personal attack, because it’s not meant to be one – I would just like to hear your explanation for this discrepancy I’ve noticed. Thanks, and hope you have a great day!
Tamara, her calorie counts are correct. I always double check calories counts because I’m ocd like that. I’m copying CCK’s comments to another reader:
“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).”
I don’t think she needs to specifically say it. If oil is 100 calories by itself, it’s obvious without saying that the other option was used.
I’m certain Katie would not take offense with your comments/queries…but you truly should read through the previous readers’ comments before risking repetition….Katie has already responded, not once, but twice to your question regarding the lower calorie counts..her stats reflect using more “milk” rather than the oil. Hope this clarifies the numbers for you.
Hi Tamara,
The other two girls pretty much summed it up. 🙂
I’m sure people have already said this, but there needs to be a “Like” function/button on WordPress, à la Facebook. I want to “like” these replies, and yours!
Haha I’m just waiting for a “love” button on facebook.
This is going to make a perfect Easter treat! I am loving making your recipes and then watching my non-vegan family members reactions when they find out they are Vegan!
Yum! I’m usually not a fan of fat free desserts so I would probably use some coconut oil! Did you use oil/if not did it still taste good without any?
I tested it both ways. And normally, I am the BIGGEST hater of fat-free baked goods… but I was surprised to find that I thought this one was good either way!
However, my favorite way to eat it is topped with coconut butter… so much for fat-free ;).
This is such a yummy idea!!
Have you been reading my mind?!!! I’ve been on a carrot cake kick llately…this looks amazing! Can’t wait to try it!
Sometimes It’s like you read my mind. I was lucky enough to find an exceptional vegan carrot cake cupcake at a little local bakery the other day-but they don’t carry it all the time. I’ve been craving another since I had it. This recipe should do the trick! Thank you!
Not normally a huge carrot cake fan BUT after seeing this…YES, YES, and YES!! Super great Katie!
You have given me something to look forward to with this one. It looks amazing!
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is literally exactly what I needed tonight.
How do you use 1/2 of an egg???
1/2 an egg substitute lol.
So 1/2 tsp ener-g, which is what I used. Or you can look up how to do a flax or chia egg… and then use half the amount it says to use for one egg :).
I love carrot cake, but somehow I always forget that it exists so I hardly ever make it. I will have to try this sometime. I’ve never used canned carrots…..I supposed cooked or shredded carrots would work as well, yes? The frosting you made looks fabulous!
As it says in the recipe, cooked would be fine. But I don’t think shredded would work because you need the puree for extra moisture. 🙂
This looks sooo good (though I will forever be in love with your cookie dough dips!). Thanks too for starting to include Weight Watcher Points Plus values.
Perfect timing as I was CRAVING a carrot cake the other day but didn’t want a bunch left over! I love your single serving recipes for the occasional indulgence!
I honestly started drooling when I saw the pictures from today’s post. YUM!