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
Made this little beauty of a cake this AM and munched it down after my one hour spin class. What a yummy treat! Do you think this wonderful confection could use shredded zucchini instead of carrots?
My taste buds thank you for posting a perfectly sized, deliciously moist carrot cake recipe!
I just made this. Only I quadrupled the recipe and made a dozen cupcakes. They came out delicious just like all the recipes of yours I’ve tried. I didn’t have the frosting ingridients so I frosted them with vegan whipped topping. Fantastic, even my picky eater child loved these, and he hates carrots.
Can anyone help? I put in the flour, sugar, milk (NOT oil), carrot, baking powder, vanilla, etc. into myfitnesspal.com and came out with higher calories. I even omitted the egg! I came out with about 200 for the whole recipe instead of 140. Any thoughts??
Thanks!
Online calculators such as myfitnesspal are meant as a guideline, not to be taken as accurate. They are often off, and also it will depend greatly on specific ingredients you use, such as type of milk. Don’t take an online calculator to be the final word.
In this case, CCK’s calculations are correct.
Hope that helps!
Thanks for your help! I was assuming online calculators were more accurate than I guess they really are!
Actually I use MFP and it is pretty accurate….. but, your comment leads me to think: are you putting each food item in separately into your food log?? If so, that’s why you’re getting a different total. Mixing all the ingredients together and cooking them changes the total value.
Hey Katie!
We loved the way these little cakes came out! It took us about 20 minutes and we added pecans for extra crunch. Thank you so much we will be using your recipes a lot from now on!
Hey Katie,
Love this recipe! Newly vegan I am looking to find recipes that work for my diet and this one is one of my favorites. I even used applesauce as my egg replacement and it still worked fabulously! Thanks so much!!
Hi there, apologies as you’ve probably been asked this many times but I am new to your site (and couldn’t see the answer in the many comments above), but do you have conversions for a normal/ larger size cake?
I’m working on it 🙂
i have the same question! I would like to make a larger cake (because this one was so fantastic). any thoughts?
Katie, In reading through the reader comments, I noticed one gals comment about making your Deep Dish Chocolate Chip cookie recipe. So, I quickly went back up to the menu to check it out in the Dessert tab under cookies, but couldn’t find it listed. Could you direct me to it’s location on your site.
https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/05/31/deep-dish-cookie-pie/
Just wondering where you buy ener-g egg replacer. I’m in Houston too. This looks delicious!
natural food section of a reg. grocery store, or whole foods baking aisle.
Thanks! Can’t wait to try it. You’re awesome!
Thanks so much for this Katie! I spent the morning preparing carrot cake with orange cream cheese icing for my sisters birthday tonight.. heavenly.(I am gluten free.) I was wondering what I could possibly substitute for myself as I watch everyone eat my masterpiece and you came through with the perfect treat! 🙂 I was a little worried they wouldn’t turn out because the only GF flour I have left right now is Celimix white bread mix, but I used it and they turned out great. I doubled it and made 4 cupcakes, my mother is GF too. I just realized while typing this that I forgot the egg too! 😛 This will definitely be my go-to recipe for dessert from now on, CARROT CAKE IS MY FAVORITE. Thanks again!!! *****
I’m eating this for the 2nd day in a row but I’ve made a bunch of my own substitutions due to my own diet preferences. And I’m eating it as a breakfast muffin so no frosting for me (though that looks fantabulous).
My subs: I used almond flour instead of spelt
I used a whole regular egg
I used maple syrup for sweetener (instead of both listed)
I used pumpkin instead of carrot
I used coconut milk & no oil.
YUM!!! Thanks, as usual, Katie! You’re the best! 🙂
I had to put it in microwave for at least 2 mins
Wow! Was looking through all your yummies for a quick, hassle free, no bake recipe, and this was the winner! Big time. I’m not really a baker, more of a cook, so I rely on wonderful and creative folks like you. As I’m writing this my teenage son devoured his serving about sentence one, lol. I doubled the recipe (teenage son), actually used an egg (cause we have chickens), added the flax cause I do to almost everything baked, and they came out beautifully. We had leftover stir fried carrots from dinner so I threw them in after dicing, grated some nutmeg, added cinnamon and garam masala, since I am apparently out of PP spice! Almond coconut milk and brown sugar, cream cheese frosting, microwaved cake, who knew? I did, but forgot, now my kid’s mind is blown, his tummy is happy and full, as is my dads.
Thank your for your amazing blog and all of the wonderful recipes you have tirelessly compiled for our benefit<3 You now have the majority of my bookmark spaces in desserts, lol. I can't wait to try all of these no bake goodies too, as it's 98` here again today in California…Thank goodness our oven is on the fritz and I found your site!
Blessings and thank you again!
Hi Katie! I just made this for my dad 🙂 He’s gonna love it, thank you SOOO much.
Sitting here all the way in Edinburgh Scotland, devouring this wonderful cake 🙂 Thanks for the recipe Katie.
This recipe was pretty great!
I added walnuts and used shredded carrots as well
Question about the tofu for the cream cheese topping…where do I get that tofu? Can I use a different type if I can’t find that kind.
Also, recipe says you can put mixture in a mug – can mugs go in oven? If so, I totally didn’t know this.
Please reply.
Mori-Nu has less of an aftertaste some people complain about. But yes, you could try a different brand if need be!