I feel as though I'm late to the mug cake game, but I've arrived now and I am HERE. FOR. IT! What's not to love about a single serve cake made in just over one minute? Beyond being incredibly genius, it's also very practical too. This vegan mug cake is healthy, gluten-free and has both tahini and chocolate (a match made in heaven IMO). Serve it up with a scoop of your favourite ice cream for a delicious treat!

Why Mug Cakes Are Awesome

If you're new to the whole mug cake idea, let me explain why they're the perfect dessert.

• Easy to make: combine all ingredients in your mug, give it a whisk and then place it in your microwave for about 60-90 seconds. Mine takes 80 seconds. See - easy, peasy!
• Delicious: I love how moist, flavourful and soft this cake is.
• Single serve: sometimes, you just want a bite of cake, not a whole one. Or maybe you live alone and don't need to (or want to) bake a whole cake. Regardless, this is a perfect single serve dessert.
• The possibilities are endless: depending on what you're in the mood for, you can whip up your own customized healthy mug cake. Birthday cake flavour - add sprinkles, chocolate mug cake - add chocolate, banana mug cake - add banana! It's the best kind of choose-your-own-adventure.  

The Ingredients

Keeping the ingredients to a minimum is always my goal and that's no different with this vegan mug cake recipe.  Here are all of the ingredients you'll need:

All Purpose Flour: Gluten-Free

Feel free to use regular all purpose flour, or a blend. I've tested this many times with Bob's Red Mill one-to-one all purpose flour with great results.

Buy Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour here!

Milk

Any type of milk will work here, I've tested it with oat milk and almond milk. If it's sweetened, you can add less sugar to the cake, or not. You do you!

Tahini

I love chocolate and tahini together and it works amazingly well in this vegan mug cake recipe. I try and recommend buying a smooth and drippy tahini that you love the taste of.

The brands I recommend are:

• Parallel Pure Sesame Butter (a great local company here in Toronto!)
• Soom Foods
• Alkanater Tahini

Dark Chocolate

I like using dark chocolate in this recipe. You can add as much or as little as you want. I like coarsely chopping it and placing a few in the centre. Then when you take a bite, you end up with a nice chunk of chocolate with the cake. You can also use chocolate chips.

Coconut Sugar

Depending on how much chocolate you use and how sweet it is, you may want to add more or less sugar. I don't have a big sweet tooth, so I opt for coconut sugar and use less than other recipes. Feel free to swap this out for regular sugar or brown sugar.

Vanilla Extract

A splash of vanilla extract brings out the flavour of the tahini and enhances the cake as well.

Baking Powder

In order to help this cake rise, you'll need a little baking powder and a pinch of salt to bring out the sweetness.

How to Make a Mug Cake in the Microwave

Making mug cake in the microwave couldn't be easier. Here's how to make it.

First, combine the wet ingredients in your mug and give it a good whisk.

Now, go ahead and add in the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk again to fully combine.

Add in the chopped dark chocolate (or chocolate chips) if using.

Place the mug in your microwave and cook on the highest setting for 70-80 seconds. Every microwave is slightly different, so you may need to adjust the time, but I've found 80 seconds to be perfect.

How to Tell if Your Mug Cake is Ready

You'll be able to tell if your vegan mug cake is ready the same way you would with a regular cake. You can insert a toothpick in the centre and if comes out clean, it's done. If you don't think it's done, just pop it back in the microwave for 10 second intervals until it's fluffy, moist and cooked through.

The mug cake will look slightly under baked, which is what you want. If you overcook it, it will get too dense.

The other trick is to let your mug cake cool for about two to three minutes after cooking. This will allow it to finish cooking more.

Substitutions

Flour: use all-purpose or Bob's gluten free flour if needed. This is the flour I've used and recommend.

Milk: use any type of dairy-free milk, or regular milk in this recipe.

No Chocolate: omit the dark chocolate and just use tahini. You can also use chocolate chips instead of chopped dark chocolate.

No Tahini: Use another type of nut or seed butter such as almond, peanut butter, hazelnut or Sun Butter. The addition of nut/seed butter helps make this vegan mug cake extra moist and soft.

More Mug Cake Tips

• Start your cook time at 60 seconds and add on from there: For an 800W microwave, 90 seconds is the ideal time to set.
• Use a microwave-safe mug: a standard wide mug that can go in the microwave is all you need.
• Serve it with a scoop of ice cream: I opted for a vegan chocolate hazelnut ice cream, any type or flavour will work.
• No microwave: Use your oven instead. Simply, use an oven safe ramekin and bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes on a baking sheet.

If you make this healthy vegan mug cake, I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to tag me on Instagram, and/or leave a comment, rating or review below.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only share products and services I have personally used and love. Disclosure here.

WANT MORE HOLISTIC FOODIE?  Don’t forget to sign up for the Holistic Foodie Newsletter and follow along on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook!

LIKE THIS RECIPE? HERE ARE MORE BAKING RECIPES TO TRY:

• No Bake Healthy Cookie Dough Bites
• Peppermint Vegan Chocolate Truffles
• One Bowl Vegan Pumpkin Bread with Buttercream Icing
• No Bake Cookie Dough Bars
• Vegan and Gluten Free Hot Chocolate Muffins with Marshmallows