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 totally tried the pumpkin substitution and have been eating for breakfast for the past two days with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting (vegan). It’s 2 tbs. vegan cream cheese blended with 1 packet Stevia and 1 1/2 tbs. of canned pumpkin. Blend and plop on the cake. OH. MY. GOSH!
Love your blog and just wanted to share a DELISH addition I made to this today! First I added chopped pecans (because EVERYTHING is better with nuts) ;o), freshly ground red wheat flour, 1/2 the sugar called for, and substituted applesauce for the oil. OK, so those were the cake adaptions . . . now for the frosting . . . 1/4 c. coconut oil, 1/2 banana pureed, sweetener to taste. Stir in some coconut and chopped pecans and oh. my. word. Enjoy! :o) It’s seriously a delicious, HEALTHY alternative to german frosting . . .
I made this for a calorie conscious friend of mine (and I myself am a Weight Watcher) and we were shocked that there could be so much delicious cakiness to consume for so few calories/points! We loved it! We topped it with a combo of cream cheese, whipped topping, an stevia. Absolutely incredible! I’m making it for breakfast with my coffee next week!
Thank you for all these wonderful recipes! I’ve been following you on Pinterest for awhile and am going to start making more of your recipes now that I have a new kitchen! Thank you!
Great recipe! I love carrot cake and I am actually about to go to the supermarket to get the ingredients…
I was just wondering, from the nutritional info I’m not 100% sure, is each cake 70 calories then?
thanks!
Wow! Thanks SO much for all the single serving recipes! I tried this one today and LOVEEEEEED it! I just blogged about it!
http://lacreativitedelafille.blogspot.com/2012/05/5-minute-carrot-cake-for-one.html
Fabulous! And thank you for the WW points! Thank you Thank you
I made this for breakfast today. It was so so so yummy! I’m planning to make it again really soon. Thanks for the awesome recipe, and feel free to post any more interesting single serving cake recipes (he he)
this was fabulous! i just made it in 5 minutes and poured it into my mini mini cupcake tins! they tasted great!!!! thanks so much for the recipe!
Okay, let me just tell you that I’m ridiculously obsessed with this…I’ve literally been making the pumpkin version almost every day. I actually have been using old fashioned oats instead of flour, applesauce instead of oil, and only one tablespoon of brown sugar (plus no regular sugar), so it’s been an awesome healthy breakfast/snack/dessert with a nice slab of almond butter in between! The only downside of using oats is it takes a LOT longer to bake, but it’s totally worth it. Thank you for this recipe!!!
My meat and potatoes husband loves this cake. Asks for it by name 🙂
Thanks again, Katie!
OHHH A VITA-MIX???? YES YES YES!!
I’ve been following your recipes for quite some time now and have loved every single one of them…I made this single lady carrot cake for my mom on Mother’s day and she LOVED it…wouldn’t stop talking about it 🙂 Thanks for helping me share the love and bring happiness to those are the most important to me 🙂
Unfortunately, I’m one of those that is already a Facebook page liker and I’m already receiving your emails and I don’t have a twitter 🙁 I guess I’m out of luck then…unless you can think of another way for all in the same boat as I to enter 🙂
Girl, you get entries for all of those!! You can always use past likes or subscriptions for every new giveaway :). Leave comments on the vita post so you’ll be entered for those things! 🙂
YEYYYY! 🙂 Thanks!
I didn’t have the ingredients to make the frosting, but I was still really eager to try this. I made it as cake in a mug in the microwave and it is amazing! Even without the icing, I love it and would definitely make this again. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Katie,
I’m pretty psyched to try this–my partner does not like carrot cake, so this way I can have my cake and eat it too! Just out of curiosity, what do you think baby food carrots would do to the texture? Do you think baby food is too runny and wouldn’t hold the batter?
I think I actually mentioned that as an option on my nutritional info link… I thought I’d mentioned it in the actual post, but now I can’t find it!
I haven’t tried it. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work, but if you do try it please report back! 🙂
Hey Katie!
Love your blog– you are so creative! I am definitely not as talented as you are in the kitchen (or behind the camera!) but I had to try this- carrot cake is my favorite! Until I realized…no carrots in the house! I used 2T coconut flour, 2T oat bran, 3T almond milk, 2T applesauce, 2T egg beaters, almond extract, and no oil- the coconut flour/oat bran soaked up a lot of liquid, so I just made some soft cookies. I promise I will try your way soon! Looking forward to more of your yummy recipes. And thank you so much for the WW info! 🙂
Hi Katie-just made this twice today!
First, as my first gluten/dairy free recipe ever (as a test), and then again for the family because it was good! I actually made it for my nephew and he wouldn’t try it initially because everyone else liked it so much that he was convinced it had to have dairy or gluten in it!
Now then, I have two questions:
How much sweetener do you put in the frosting? i feel like i put way too much!
Also, humor me, i’ve read through the blog and seen your replies, but it didn’t reallly rise like your pictures. I went with the pumpkin and used the ener-g and i was wondering if i was supposed to leave the ener-g dry and not mix w/water (per box directions?) that was really the only variation.
Oh, and finally, i saw the comment above and added choc. chips in to half the recipe and we loved them that way, too!
Love your blog! thanks for sharing your recipes–they all look delicious!
Hi JoAnn,
Yes definitely don’t mix with water. I think that could’ve been why it didn’t rise for you; too liquidy/mushy? I always disregard the box directions on that. Sorry for the confusion! 😕
My hand is raised. Really really high. However, we are on a biggest loser weight loss challenge at work, and its only week 2 out of 12. I have lost 13 lbs, but have to wait to make these. I did however click on the pinterest options 🙂 And will start baking the last week in September. Soooooo excited to find single serving choices.