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This healthy mug cake is rich, moist, and full of chocolate flavor. Low in calories, it’s made with no eggs or butter and ready in under a minute!
Love mug cake recipes? Try my peanut butter mug cake, coffee mug cake, and protein mug cake next.
Watching my calories doesn’t mean I say goodbye to sweets. Quite the contrary, actually.
My low calorie mug cake has been a staple in our house for quite a while. It’s easy to make and allows me to satisfy my chocolate cravings without going overboard.
Table of Contents
Why I love this recipe
- Microwave and oven instructions. I prefer the microwave method since it’s quick, but if I’m making 2-3 mug cakes at a time, I’ll typically use the oven. So, I included instructions for both.
- Secretly diet-friendly. Without even trying, this mug cake is dairy-free, vegan, AND easy to make gluten-free or low-carb if needed.
- It’s just so easy. Just mix all the ingredients together and pop it in the microwave. One minute later, and voila! A mini chocolate cake all for yourself.
- Customizable. This recipe has plenty of wiggle room to swap the ingredients or change the flavor.
★★★★★ REVIEW
“Wow, this turned out so good! Perfect dessert to help with a sweet tooth when you are dieting and so easy!” – Casha
Ingredients needed
- All-purpose flour. Also known as plain flour. Be sure to sift it thoroughly if your flour has clumps.
- Sugar OR sugar substitute. To keep the calories super low and the mug cake sugar-free, opt for a sugar substitute (granulated). If you are fine with some sugar, any works- brown, white, coconut sugar, etc.
- Cocoa Powder. To give the mug cake the chocolate flavor, use good-quality cocoa powder to really bring out the flavor.
- Baking soda. To give the mug cake some rise and texture!
- Salt. Brings out the sweetness, especially in cakes.
- Oil of choice. For the rich texture of the cake. Oil also replaces the need for any butter or margarine.
- White vinegar. It acts as a leavening agent, especially when mixed with baking soda.
- Vanilla extract. A must for any baked good or cake!
- Water. To bind the ingredients. I also tested using unsweetened almond milk, but I didn’t notice a big flavor difference, so I used water to keep the calories lower.
- Espresso powder. Optional, but I find it enhances the chocolate flavor without imparting strong coffee flavor.
- Mini chocolate chips. Another optional mix-in, but as you can imagine, chocolate chips make everything taste better!
How to make a low calorie mug cake
I’ve included step-by-step photos below to make this recipe easy to follow at home. For the full printable recipe instructions and ingredient quantities, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Step 1- Prep. Grease a microwave-safe mug or ramekin with cooking spray.
Step 2- Make the batter. Combine the dry ingredients. Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips if using.
Step 3- Microwave. Microwave for 1-2 minutes. Remove from the microwave and let sit for 30 seconds before enjoying.
How to make this in the oven
If you’d rather make the healthy mug cake in the oven, you certainly can. Simply grease an oven-safe ramekin or small baking dish (4 or 6 inches) with cooking spray. Make the cake batter and pour it into the ramekin. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean. Let it sit for a minute before enjoying.
Arman’s recipe tips
- Avoid overcooking. Everyone’s microwave models differ, so I suggest microwaving the mug cakes in 30-second intervals. After a minute, if the cake feels slightly soft, let it sit for 30 seconds and see if it firms up. If not, continue microwaving in 15-second intervals until done.
- Use a bigger mug or cereal bowl if you’re worried the cake will overflow as it expands.
- If the batter is too thick, add a splash of milk.
Variations
- Make it extra gooey. Add an additional 2 tablespoons of water and reduce the cooking time to 45 seconds or until the tops are just barely done.
- Cut the carbs. Use a keto brown sugar substitute and sugar-free chocolate chips.
- Make it fat-free. Swap the oil for unsweetened applesauce.
- Enhance the flavor. Fold in ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract or top the cake with a pinch of flaky sea salt.
More low calorie desserts you’ll love
Healthy Mug Cake (Low Calorie)
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour gluten-free, if necessary
- 2 tablespoon granulated sweetener of choice sugar or sugar substitute
- 2 teaspoon cocoa powder
- 1/16 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon espresso powder optional
- 1 teaspoon oil of choice vegetable, sunflower, coconut, etc.
- 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar scant 1/2 teaspoon * See notes
- 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoon water
- 1-2 tablespoon chocolate chips of choice optional
Instructions
- Grease a microwave-safe bowl or ramekin generously with cooking spray.
- Add your dry ingredients and mix well. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until fully incorporated. If using chocolate chips, fold them through.
- Microwave for 1-2 minutes, or until done. Remove from the microwave and let sit for 30 seconds, before enjoying.
Oven Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease an oven-safe dish or ramekin (4-6 inches).
- Add your dry ingredients and mix well. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until fully incorporated. If using chocolate chips, fold them through.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the cake looks done. Remove from the oven and let sit for 30 seconds, before enjoying.
Another banger! This is PERFECTION. I didn’t have chcolate chips but had a bit of left over vanilla icing in the freezer. Shaved off a bit and let it melt on top after the microwave. *chef’s kiss* amazing! This is my go to recipe! Thank you!
This was delicious! Tastes so decadent.. but it’s not!
This is going to be my new go to recipe for a mug cake. I used 1/4 tsp of rice vinegar and it turned out fine (couldn’t taste the vinegar).
Omg this recipe hit the spot. I’m on the WW program & my traditional cake in a mug recipe uses oil. I bake often so I wanted To find something to satisfy my chocolate cravings that also involved my oven safe ramekins. I followed All the instructions but do live in high altitude so I did Have to leave it in the oven for 18 minutes vs 10. Next time, my plan is to reduce the water by 1 Tbs because of the altitude & see if that’s better. Thank you so much. It was perfect & I linked your recipe to share with my weight watchers connect group.
Hands down delicious!!! Put a fresh sliced strawberry on top.
Really good! But calorie count is way misleading and off.
2 tbsp of flour is 50 cal
2 tbsp sugar is at least 50 cal
1 tsp oil 41 cal
Cocoa powder is ~40
If you add chocolate chips that’s 160 for the ones I used.
Not correct- we used sugar substitutes which is 0 calories and 1 teaspoon of oil is 30 calories. Cocoa powder is 7 calories (1 tablespoon is 10 calories). Looks like your calorie calculator is off.
This is actually amazing! So quick and easy. Might have this every night!
Hot damn. Hot damn. HOT DAMN.
Seriously amaaaazing. After a long day with a teething baby, this is exactly what momma wants and NEEDS! It’s gonna be hard not to eat this every night…or like 5 times a day haha thank you for this!!
Is it 100 calories using real sugar or the fake sweeteners?
It is using the sugar substitutes.
I made a big batch of the dry ingredients. Now I just use 2 heaping tablespoons of the dry and add my wet ingredients. Takes seconds and is delicious. Thanks for sharing.
SO GOOD!!!! I didn’t have vinegar so substituted for water, submerged a piece of chocolate in the batter to make lava cake, and incorporated chopped almonds for texture 🙂
THE BEST mug cake! Thank you.
I prefer my mug cakes to be more gooey and brownie-like, but for a cake-like consistency, this was really good! I added two tablespoons of chocolate chips, and would definitely recommend at least that for texture. I microwaved just 1 minute, and would probably do a little bit less next time so that it’s gooey-er. The portion size was also really small!… which I guess is because it’s only 100 calories haha…
Love, love, love the flavor! OMG! Used gf flour (cup 4 cup) and Stevia and it tasted amazing. I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong, though, because it didn’t rise at all. I tried it a second time and followed the directions word for word and it still didn’t rise. What am I doing wrong?
I’ve been making mug cakes for a long time. Always looking for that perfect small cake, but it always alluding me. Well, I’m happy, and sad (it’s become somewhat of a hobby looking) to say I’ve found it! Perfect, tender, not dry, fluffy, flavorful, I can go on and on, but I won’t. Simply, Thank you!