Chocolate Chip Mug Cake
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This single-serve Chocolate Chip Mug Cake takes less than 2 minutes to microwave. Featuring a simple brown sugar batter and melted pools of chocolate chips, it’s the fastest dessert for one!
Why you’ll love this recipe!
For sweet treat emergencies – This chocolate chip cookie mug cake is perfect for impatient people like me! It’s a 5-minute treat that comes in handy when I’m craving something sweet but don’t want to bake an entire cake.
Tastes like a chocolate chip cookie – That brown sugar batter makes the cake deliciously moist, while the chocolate chips add the classic chocolate chip cookie vibe.
Quick single-serve dessert – Just mix a few pantry staples in a mug, microwave, and enjoy!
Table of Contents
Don’t you just love mug cakes? My chocolate banana mug cake and my pumpkin mug cake aren’t quite the same as regular cakes, but they’re a heck of a lot faster and simpler! This Chocolate Chip Mug Cake is no exception, either.
It comes together in just 5 minutes: 3 minutes to stir the brown sugar batter together and under 2 minutes in the microwave. In the end, you’re left with a warm, soft cake packed with melted chocolate chips. It’s truly the best quick fix for impatient bakers like me!
Single-Serve Mug Cake Ingredients
Butter – I used unsalted butter, but salted butter works, too. Just omit the extra salt from the recipe.
Baking staples – The chocolate chip cake batter is a breeze to make with classic baking staples, like brown sugar, an egg, vanilla, flour, and salt.
Chocolate chips – Either mini or standard chocolate chips. For extra fun, use 1 tablespoon of chocolate chips and 1 tablespoon of the mix-in of your choice, like funfetti sprinkles, candy-coated chocolate, pretzel pieces, chopped nuts, etc.
Variations
- Gluten-free option – I haven’t tested this recipe with gluten-free flour, but I’m sure it would work just as well as all-purpose flour.
- Whole wheat flour option – An equal amount of whole wheat flour should work as a substitute for the all-purpose flour. Just keep in mind that the cake will be a little more dense.
- For a vegan option, try making the mug cake with non-dairy butter and 1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flaxseed + 2 tbsp water) instead of the egg.
- Out of butter? Softened coconut oil should work as a substitute.
- Brown sugar substitute – I really like how the brown sugar adds that classic chocolate chip cookie flavor, but cane sugar works, too.
- Instead of chocolate chips, use chopped nuts, candy-coated chocolate, sprinkles, a chopped dark chocolate bar, mini marshmallows, or pretzel pieces.
How to Make a Chocolate Chip Cake in a Mug
Step 1: Melt the butter. Microwave the butter in the mug until it’s mostly melted.
Step 2: Add the rest. Whisk the brown sugar, egg, and vanilla in with the butter. Last, stir in the flour, salt, and some of the chocolate chips.
Step 3: Microwave. Microwave the mug cake for 1 minute and 25 seconds.
Step 4: Serve. Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips on top of the cooked mug cake, then serve and enjoy!
Erin’s Tips and Tricks
- I tested this recipe in a standard coffee mug; making it in a smaller, more narrow, or larger mug may give you different results!
- Don’t fully melt the butter at the start, or else the cake batter will be too thin. I microwaved mine for 30 seconds, so there were still some solid butter pieces left in the mug.
- Chocolate lovers, you can mix 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder into the cake batter if you’d like! A double chocolate chip mug cake would be oh-so decadent.
- Top your cooked mug cake with extra chocolate chips, a drizzle of chocolate sauce, a spoonful of my 2-ingredient Nutella, or a drizzle of maple syrup for extra sweetness!
My Pro Tip
Microwave Cooking Times May Vary
Mug cake recipes can be a little finicky since every microwave is different. Mine cooked perfectly after 1 minute and 25 seconds, but yours might take anywhere between 1 minute and 1 minute 45 seconds.
Mug Cake FAQs
It sounds like it wasn’t microwaved for long enough. I would continue microwaving it in 10-second intervals to help it finish cooking. And remember, this is a kind of trial-and-error process since all microwaves are different.
Since there’s no baking soda in this mug cake recipe, the cake will not puff up or rise as much as your typical cake. It will still be fluffy and delicious, though!
More Chocolate Chip Recipes
If you made this recipe, be sure to leave a comment and star rating below. Thanks!
Chocolate Chip Mug Cake
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp butter, melted
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 egg
- ¼ tsp vanilla
- ¼ cup all purpose flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp chocolate chips, divided
Instructions
- Add the butter to a standard size mug and microwave for 30 seconds – you want it to be mostly melted but not completely.
- Then, add the brown sugar, egg and vanilla to the mug and whisk to combine. Last, stir in the flour, salt and 1 ½ tablespoons of chocolate chips.
- Place the mug bake in the microwave and microwave for 1 minute and 25 seconds. NOTE: every microwave is different, so you may need to microwave for a few seconds longer.
- Immediately remove the mug from the microwave and sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips on top. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
I used Kodiak buttermilk power cake mix and an extra tablespoon of whole wheat flour as my flour for this and it is the best mug cake I have ever made.
Thanks so much! Glad you loved the mug cake!
Pleasantly surprised at how yummy this was!
So glad you enjoyed it!
This cake was a huge hit with my husband! Not too sweet, just right and I like that the recipe calls for whole wheat flour. I made it in a really small pyrex bowl and it was perfect. I used the exact recipe and it was delish! Thanks
It’s not helpful unless someone has actually tried this 🙁
Hi Thea… what isn’t helpful? I’ll try to answer any questions you might have.
People r commenting, but not reviewing the actual receipe. I have NO idea if it was good or not. I thought there should be reviews and not comments, that’s all. Thanks 😉
You said this was dairy free but the recipe includes egg. What do o replace the egg with? I don’t have flax so flax eggs are out.
Hi Kim, Eggs actually aren’t dairy, so that’s why this mug cake is dairy free. Unfortunately the only substitution I’m aware of is a flax egg, and I haven’t tried that in this recipe (though I’m assuming it would work).