Easy Vanilla Mug Cake – Ready in 90 seconds! This mug cake is moist, delicious and topped with a lovely vanilla icing that soaks into the cake and infuses it with sweetness!
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So, eating healthier and getting in shape are part of my 2016 goals. . .mine and a bazillion other people’s no doubt. It has to be the reason I’m craving sweetness now more than ever. You always want what you can’t or shouldn’t have, right? Well, to satisfy my sweet tooth but keep the portion size in check, I made this yummy and easy Vanilla Mug Cake.
This little cake is moist, delicious and topped with a lovely vanilla icing that soaks into the cake and infuses it with sweetness! Pretty smart, right?
I’ve never really “trusted” mug cakes. I’ve had many that turned out dry and tasteless. It took a little experimenting until I achieved the sweetness I was looking for. And in my opinion, cake isn’t really cake if you eat it out of a mug. Cake out of a mason jar, now that’s a different story. You can “see” through a mason jar so it can still be “pretty.” You following me?
So, this is usually my hot chocolate mug from which I drink the most wonderful hot chocolate in the world. Alright, so I’m a little biased, but you can’t get much better than ice cream AND white chocolate. Oh, man. I need to make more of that this winter. . .
What were we talking about again? Oh yes. This mug cake. . .
All it takes is 90 seconds in the microwave, and you’ll have a little “mug” o’ heaven. Classic vanilla cake is just the best. In fact, vanilla truly IS our favorite cake flavor here in the house.
One of the most important tips I can offer if you’re going to make this cake is to make sure that your mug is at least 14 ounces or it may “bubble” over while baking in the microwave. Watch that mug closely!! If you use a big enough mug there’s nothing to worry about. My cake took up about 3/4 of the cup, which was perfect.
I made sure to spray the mug generously with cooking spray before adding the batter and baking it. That way, when it was done, I just ran a butter knife around the edges of the cake to loosen it from the mug and flipped it over!
Here’s the disclaimer. This is not about perfection. It may not look “perfect” when you flip it out of the mug. But in my opinion, it looks much prettier out of the mug than in it. Top it with some sprinkles and you’ll begin to fall in love.
Add some sweet icing, and you’ll forget the cake was ever even in a mug. What mug? See.
I let the icing soak in a little bit while I filled a glass of milk. . .AND. . .put a few more sprinkles on top.
Just look at how moist this is. Drag the cake right through that little pool of icing. Holy moly. Seriously now. Promise me you’ll try this. Believe it or not, the cake is fairly sweet without the icing. If you wanted to switch out the icing for some whipped cream, you could do that, too. Heck, next time I may add some sprinkles to the actual cake batter!
So, yeah. There you have it. An easy vanilla mug cake perfect for one. . .or two, if you really wanted to share. But when it comes to cake is that even a consideration? I’m going to go and grab an extra mug just to be safe. I’ll make you your own. Do you have 90 seconds to spare? After that, we’ll do PiYo in my basement. You in?
Easy Vanilla Mug Cake
Ready in 90 seconds! This mug cake is moist, delicious and topped with a lovely vanilla icing that soaks into the cake and infuses it with sweetness!
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 4 Tablespoons flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3 Tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 Tablespoon butter, softened
- 4 Tablespoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
For the Icing
- 3 Tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon butter. softened
- 1 Tablespoon milk
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
For the Cake
- Mix all ingredients in a bowl.
- Pour into greased mug (at least 16 ounces).
- Microwave on high for 1 minute 30 seconds (or 90 seconds).
For the Icing
- Mix all ingredients together and drizzle over cake either inside the mug or pop cake out of mug onto plate.
Notes
For thicker icing, add more sugar. For thinner icing, add a bit more milk.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
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Wow I like the look of that cakesounds pretty easy to make as wwell
This is the best mug cake recipe ever! It was moist, light and fluffy. I add sprinkles to the batter before microwaving and it made the perfect confetti cake. Thanks for sharing!
That’s music to my ears! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I really love this recipe, too, and I love the fact that you added sprinkles right to the batter!
Hi I was just wondering if this recipe works in the oven as well
The recipe is specifically for the microwave. I wouldn’t use it in the oven. Good luck!
Very yummy, I would probably add a little more vanilla extract or sugar next time, but with the chocolate icing I put on myne it tasted very good and is fluffy!
★★★★★
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!! Chocolate icing sounds delicious!
I’ve been googling mug cake recipes for months and every one I’ve tried is too buttery or gross. This is the first recipe I’ve used that was successful. Thank you for posting. I will definitely use it again. 🙂
★★★★★
Yay! I love this recipe too, Erika!
Made this tonight after roast pork and served with icecream and stewed apple it was fantastic! Quite a large serve though ☺ very fluffy and light. Love the idea above to add sprinkles to batter my kids would love that!
★★★★★
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Dana!
I LOVE this recipe! I added lemon juice and zest to the cake and the icing.
★★★★★
That sounds like such a great addition! I’m so glad you enjoy the recipe!
I absolutley love this mug cake. It is much better than the other mug cakes I have tried. To make it vegan, instead of using regular butter, I used vegan butter! Thanks for the recipe!
What a great idea to use vegan butter! So glad you enjoyed it!
Oh my! I’d given up on mug cake recipes and went looking for one on impulse….love yours. It’s delicious. I will be making it again. 🙂
★★★★★
Oh, I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I know it’s hard to find good recipes. This one is my go-to!
I make mug cakes a lot but decided to try a new recipe tonight and came across this one. It’s definitely the best one I’ve made as agreed upon by both me and my partner. (And no I didn’t dare share mine with him, we doubled the recipe 🙂 )
I’m so glad that you loved the recipe, Marina! From all the comments about other recipes, I think I’m sticking to this one, too! 😉
Best mug cake I have eaten it is not all mushy at all I typically do not home made cakes so, this was saying a lot that I enjoyed this it was moist, sweet, and flavorful. Thank you for sharing your ideas!
Oh, I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for your sweet comment!
Couldn’t find vanilla extract but it still tastes amazing!
The cake was so delicious and fluffy! It’s perfect! However, when i made the icing, the margarine ( i used margarine) doesnt want to mix with the milk and sugar. Is it because i used margarine instead of butter?
★★★★★
Karimina, try softening the margarine or butter in the microwave next time to the point of melting. That may help it mix better next time. So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
hi! i love this mug cake! but may i ask, what is the watt of your microwave? thanks! 😊
★★★★★
Absolutely. It’s 1000 watts.
I’ve tried so many vanilla mug cake recipes, and trust me, this is the best one I’ve tried. I normally don’t comment on things but I just felt compelled to for this one. Definitely going to keep using this in the future, thank you so much!!
That is SO sweet, Kelsey! I’m flattered that you felt compelled to leave a comment. I recently used this mug cake recipe in a homemade ice cream recipe I made. It was so good. You need to check it out! https://bitzngiggles.com/birthday-cake-crunch-ice-cream/
This is really good and I’m so glad I tried it. I had made chocolate sauce for ice cream but didn’t realize we were all out of ice cream. I wanted something quick to pour my sauce over and this was perfect. Thank you.
★★★★★
Oh, I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Allie!
I loved it but it was just a little sweet I would suggest a little lest sugar but just depends how sweet you like things
★★★★★
You can definitely adjust the sweetness level! Sub the frosting with whipped cream or just add a bit less sugar like you suggested!
I love this Mug cake but I was wondering, what would be measurements for this cake if I would make it like a regular size cake??
Oh, Alex. I’m not sure. I’ve only ever made this as a mug cake!
My first mug cake, and it was delicious! I used coconut sugar so it came out brown but still delicious. I also used coconut oil instead of butter because I was out of butter. I think it still came out just fine. Craving satisfied!
★★★★★
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Stephanie. great idea to use coconut oil!
For something so absolutely delicious, it is so simple to do! Thank you for sharing the recipe!
I had a hankering for dessert tonight and this totally hit the spot. Thanks so much! I skipped the icing and threw some ice cream and a couple strawberries on top.
★★★★★
I love your addition of ice cream and strawberries. It sounds delicious!
I made this for breakfast (how is it worse than pancakes or donuts? I asked myself as I tried to justify cake for breakfast) and topped it with strawberry jelly and half a handful of mini chocolate chips. Fantastic!
★★★★★
Thanks for the giggle today! I’m sure you deserved every bit of that mug cake. Good for you! So glad you enjoyed it!
Not a success. Followed every ingredient and step exactly, and still came out terrible. Looked like something you’d get in a school cafeteria, and tasted like floury, slightly sweet play-doh. Had the texture of modeling clay.
★★
Oh no, I’m so disappointed to hear that. I haven’t had any of my readers have this problem and I’ve never had this problem myself. It almost sounds like it either wasn’t cooked long enough or there was too much liquid in your mug? Not sure but I would love for you to try it again sometime – maybe in a different mug or microwave? So sorry you didn’t enjoy it. 🙁
I had the same trouble. Ingredients are spot on, maybe my mug was too big? Came out a complete and total greasy looking blob of what looks like corn bread. I’m gonna try a different mug that’s not soo large.
I loved this recipe it was the best mug cake ever and instead of using powdered sugar I used one tablespoon of regular sugar and used cold butter put it in the microwave for 30 seconds and poured it over the cake and it tasted heavenly
★★★★★
Ooh, your substitutes sound delicious! I’m so glad you enjoyed the mug cake!
Best cake mug recipe ever!!! Even my dad liked it and he doesn’t like sweet things 🙂
Yay!! I’m so glad your dad liked the recipe, too! Win win for sure!
This was delicious!! I only used 2 tbsp sugar for the cake and for the frosting, skipped the butter and drizzled the “fondant” over the cake and let it sink in. Yum!! I also softened the butter for the cake in the microwave in the mug I was going to use and therefore was able to eliminate to cooking spray! This is a keeper and perfect for me as it limits my portion size and prevents me from eating an entire cake. 😊
★★★★★
I’m so glad you enjoyed the cake and I love your tips!
Hi I was just wondering what kind of flour you used? Is all purpose flour okay?
Yes! That’s exactly what I used!
Thus by far the best mug cake I have ever made. Most recipes call for an egg and it makeseems the cake heavy and eggy. This is light and delicious. Thank you so much
★★★★★
I’ve tried a few different mug cake recipes and this one is the by far best! The only change I made was I used coconut oil instead of butter. This will be my go to recipe from now on. Thank you! 🙂
I love the coconut oil idea!
I just broke up with my boyfriend and decided to make this cake. I love the recipe and it made me so happy making and eating this cake!
★★★★★
Only better times here on out, Ali! Glad you enjoyed the cake. 😉
Best mug cake ever!
★★★★★
What type of flour is used? I’m not quite sure wheather to use all purpose flour or plain flour.
You can use all purpose flour.
Gluten Free Version – just substitite flour for gluten free all purpose flour. The cake tastes like warm sugar cookie dough. A little sweet for me but my daughter LOVED it! I have tried MANY mug cakes & she usually rolls her eyes when I aanounce I have tried a new mug cake recipe but this time their was not a crumb left. THANK YOU!
★★★★★
I love it!! Thanks for such a sweet message, Bonnie! I’m glad your daughter approves!!
I didn’t have any milk or normal milk substitutes so I tried using 4Tbsp of sweetened condensed milk + 1 Tbsp water, and it was a gooey disaster. Cant wait to go to the store and pick up some milk and try this right!
Just don’t try doing what I did…it doesn’t work and is really a pain to clean up!
Oh no! When you get your hands on that milk, let me know how you like the recipe! I can guarantee it will be better than what it was with sweetened condensed milk!!
I LOVED this recipe. I really needed a pick me up and it was perfect!!! Thanks for sharing your recipe!!
WOW WOW WOW. This mug cake is the bomb dot com. Super easy to make with ingredients that even a college student like me can source at 1:30 in the morning on a Monday night. I added a spoonful of nutella after 30 seconds in the microwave, hoping it would sink about halfway while cooking, but the cake was cooked in 60 seconds for me and the nutella just melted a bit and spread on the top. Oh well, every spoil is a style. This was honestly so good I’m craving another one but it was just the right size and sweetness I don’t think I could handle two.
★★★★★
Michelle, so happy you’ve found a midnight snack you love! Make sure to share the recipe with your friends and roommates! I think they’ll love it, too! The Nutella sounds heavenly!
Mine turned out perfect. It’s delicious. Thank you! Love from Malaysia.
Recipe turned out just how I wanted it too!! Super fluffy and delicious. I made a simpler icing by using 1/3 cup confectioners sugar and 1 tablespoon milk. Made the cake even better than it already was.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Emma!
Wtf, this mug cake is one of the most delicious things I’ve ever tasted from a microwave. Major props, I might make this instead of baking regular cakes now.
★★★★★
🙂 It’s sure a lot faster than baking a full cake, isn’t it?!
I didn’t have normal powdered sugar so I had to use cinnamon powdered sugar and it turned out so good. It almost tasted like a cinnamon bun❤️❤️.
★★★★★
Ooh, what a great idea! I never heard of cinnamon powdered sugar!
This was perfect! I’ve tried several mug recipes and have been disappointed with each one until this one. This hit the spot and tasted so good!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Christina!
Loved it but it looked so good husband stole half next time need to make two
★★★★★
Ha! Ha! Yes, next time double it up!
I whipped this up last night for a personal sized quick dessert. I added some fresh raspberrys and a handful of white chocolate chips before popping into the microwave. Seriously best mug cake I have ever had! My hubby stole half of it. I will certainly be making it again!
★★★★★
What a great idea to add raspberries and white chocolate chips! You’re making me hungry!
It’s astonishing that I still have faith in the internet with recipes, but for this mug cake, I’m glad I still do.
There are two recipes from the internet that I have fallen in love with. This one, and single-serve chocolate chip cookies from Chelsea’s Messy Apron (if you are looking to make chocolate chip cookies I strongly recommend looking it up and trying the recipe. I have started to make a dozen cookies and sticking the dough in the refrigerator so that it’s very easy to have delicious cookies. Healthy? Probably not.)
Every recipe (and there have been many, many, online recipes) that I have tried from online have failed me except for these two. Thank you for making an actually good mug cake! If I can make it and it tastes good, it must be a miracle.
★★★★★
Well, that’s quite an honor to be in your top 2 recipes from the Internet! Chelsea is great and if you think her cookies are good, you need to try more of her recipes! Thanks so much for taking time to comment. Comments like this always make my day. Thanks so much! I hope you stick around for more fun recipes and ideas. I’d love to have you!
I bet its really good, but im a terrible cook, and couldn’t even make the frosting X3 or maybe this recipe isn’t for me, but still thanks for sharing ^-^
Bethany, just make the mug cake and top it with some Cool Whip if you’re having trouble with the frosting. I KNOW you can make this cake. Try it one more time and let me know how it goes!!
This mug cake is amazing. I used soy milk instead of regular milk it was so yummy!
★★★★★
Pretty good but mine was WAY TO DRY I put it in for 90 seconds
★★★★
Every microwave is different. I hope you try again and maybe just put it in for a minute – then check it. You can always put it back in a little longer. Sometimes microwave recipes take a bit of experimentation. Good luck!
Hey, I want to make this but I don’t have baking powder. What could I use to substitute it?
You could try baking soda and lemon juice if you have that. Measurements are a teaspoon of lemon juice plus a ¼ teaspoon baking soda to make 1 teaspoon of baking powder.
I used self rising flower and left out the baking soda
thank you so so much for this. I made this and put diced strawberries and whipped cream on mine. Yum!
★★★★★
It’s a good cake, I just wish you had nutritional information posted somewhere in here. Not because I wanna see how healthy it is but it’s easier to put it into my calorie tracker lol
★★★★★
Just made this, and it was delicious. I didn’t add the icing, just sprinkled a little cinnamon on top before nuking. I was scraping the mug when I was done.
Thank You my dear.
★★★★★
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Great idea with the cinnamon!
My husband was craving cake and I tried this recipe and he said it’s amazing thanks a lot I’m gluten allergic so myself couldn’t try it.
★★★★★
Amazing! Instead of the glaze I used strawberries with sugar.
★★★★★
I just made it and followed your instructions all the way. Love it!! This is only the second mud cake I’ve like and would definitely make it again (maybe even multiples of it for a low-key birthday celebration). Thank you <3
I’m genuinely shocked as to how good this was! I was super sceptical at first. I didn’t have vanilla extract, but I did have milky bar, and so threw some of those into the mix. Nice and melt-y addition! ^_^
★★★★★
I accidentally used bread flour! But it still came out good. I drizzled salted caramel sauce while still warm. Then topped it with whip topping.Yum! The texture is somewhat like malay cupcake? Next time I’ll make sure it’s all purpose flour.
★★★★
I love this!!
This mug cake is ok… I could really taste the vanilla and it was kind of light and airy. I guess I’ll continue to make chocolate mug cakes instead. Threw this one out.
For the icing it was too sugary
I tried making it with heavy cream and without butter and it tasted like doughnut icing!
That sounds so good!
I loved this recipe, the only thing was that the icing for my vanilla cake had a bit too much vanilla. I think it mixed in well though and was very balanced.
Glad you liked it, Josie!
This tasted like an egg patty and the smell is not inviting at all. Like someone farted in my microwave. I’m still not for sure on using a whole egg. An entire cake recipes calls for only 3 and i don’t think the mug was the equivalent of a 1/3 of a cake recipe. I’ll give it another try, I guess the bonus is that I didn’t waste a whole lot of ingredients on this recipe. Happy Caking!
Well, so first of all, you made me giggle a little today about your microwave comment. Your problem is an easy one and I can help! There are NO eggs in this recipe. Take a look and try it again. I promise you’re going to love it the second time around with NO egg!
My my my, what a wonderful cake in a mug recipe. I’ve never made one before but have heard quite a few horror stories about them. Last night I really wanted a quick sweet cake, so I searched the internet for quite a while and thought I’d try this one and I have no regrets. I made minor changes, instead of cooking spray I used butter to grease the inside of my cup and used lemon instead of vanilla. It came out like a very fluffy sponge. It’s perfect, thanks.
★★★★★
I love your idea with the lemon. It sounds delicious!