This Coffee Cake In A Cup recipe is the perfect remedy for a sugar craving! If you’ve tried other coffee mug cakes and weren’t sold, you have to try this one! It takes about a minute to bake in the microwave and about that much time to mix it together. It’s fluffy, light, and has an irresistible streusel topping!
Coffee Mug Cake
I usually try to stay FAR, FAR away from the microwave when it comes to anything besides reheating food. In fact, Baking in the microwave pretty much goes against everything I believe in. Until now.
I’m guessing you’ve probably tried a coffee mug cake by now and have been underwhelmed by it, am I right? I know I have! I think we all want to believe that we can spend a few minutes mixing something up, throw it in the microwave and have a decadent creation presented to us by the microwave gods 1 minute later. Because, well, that would be cool.
Well, I’m here with some good news! I have a coffee cake in a cup recipe that doesn’t suck! 🙂 And when I say it doesn’t suck, I mean it’s reeeeeaaaalllly dang good. Like, the microwave gods are really pleased with themselves and how this coffee mug cake turned out.
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If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you know that I posted this coffee cake in a cup recipe a long time ago– 5 1/2 years ago to be exact! And, I figured it was time to take some updated pictures (aka- give myself an excuse to make some cake).
Does Coffee Cake In a Cup Have Coffee In It?
If you read through the comments at the end of the post you’ll see a pretty common thread– “Why doesn’t this have coffee in it?!?” Well, here’s the answer: Traditional coffee cake DOESN’T actually have coffee IN it. Instead, it’s a cake that is commonly served WITH coffee.
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Tips for Making Coffee Cake In A Cup:
- Make sure your mug is big enough to allow the cake to rise about 1 inch. Nobody likes cleaning out the microwave. 🙂
- Microwave ovens all vary so your cooking time will vary, too! My microwave cook this cake in a cup perfectly at the 6o second mark. I suggest starting at 50 seconds and going up in 10-second intervals until the center is set. You can check this by inserting a toothpick into the middle and if it comes out with only a few moist crumbs, it’s done!
- The BEST way to eat this cake in a cup is straight out of the microwave when it’s nice and hot! Of course, you can let it cool as to not burn your face off, but once it’s cooled completely it loses some of its magic.
Want More Coffee Mug Cake Recipes?
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{2 minute} Coffee Cake in a Cup
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 2 Tablespoons applesauce
- vanilla extract few drops
- 1/4 cup All Purpose flour
- 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- In a mug soften 1 tbsp of butter in microwave, about 5 seconds. You don’t want it melted, just soft. Stir in 2 tbsp of sugar and mix until well incorporated. Stir in applesauce, vanilla (just a tiny bit, we’re talking drops), flour, baking powder, and pinch of salt; stirring until just combined. Use the back of your spoon to smooth it out in the bottom of the mug.
- Want struesel? Of course you do! In a separate, small bowl, combine 1 tbsp of butter, 2 tbsp of flour, 1 tbsp of brown sugar, and ¼ tsp cinnamon. Use your fingers to to pinch the butter and mix it in with the other ingredients. When it starts to look like lumpy sand (appetizing, eh?) and all ingredients are combined, pour on top of cake batter in mug.
- Cook in the microwave for 50-80 seconds depending on your microwave. At 1 minute, my microwave cooks it perfectly. It will look just barely set on top. You don’t want to overcook it and things tend to get ugly fast in the microwave. I suggest cooking it 50 seconds, and then in 10 second intervals checking after each interval until done. Eat white it’s still warm. Once it cools off, it tends to loose some of it’s magic!
Mary says
April 3, 2019 at 11:01 pmFrom google…
Description: Coffee cake is cake flavored with or intended to be eaten with coffee. British coffee cake is a sponge flavoured with coffee.
Therefore, it’s not stupid to expect this to contain coffee. I’m from the UK so my defacto idea of a coffee cake is a coffee flavoured cake. For those in North America, it usually means something different. It’s not always obvious unless you can see a picture or description, Disappointed with those people that are making fun of or being rude to folks that expected coffee in this,
Sandra Hinkle says
March 28, 2019 at 10:15 amI read the first half where you stated that self rising flour made the best but noticed your recipe calls for all purpose flour. Which one is it please🦋
Wendy says
March 22, 2019 at 12:24 pmDoes it taste like apple, is the applesauce for moisture? Have your ever tried it with yogurt?
Kris says
July 26, 2018 at 1:03 pmI’m joining this party late, but I just had to comment …cuz this is AMAZEBALLS! I’m totally addicted! Since I’m one of those annoying people who never gains weight (Thanks, grandma, for the DNA), I find myself making this, probably way too much. It’s just THAT,good!. The texture is perfect. The sweetness ust right. The streusel is…to die for. I always use the same base recipe but play around with flavors… banana, berries, apple, pear, oatmeal in the topping. So much mug cake, so many possibilities….so little time!
Kate says
June 29, 2018 at 5:16 amSorry, we did not care for this. I felt like I could taste the flour. We won’t make this one again. ☹️
Katelyn says
April 1, 2019 at 5:37 amI had that happen to me to! But the struzel that I made was AMAZING!
Nour says
April 15, 2018 at 4:04 pmThanks for the great recipe!
I wonder what the wattage of your microwave is? Mine is 1400W and it seems it needs double the time you specified in the article.
BTW, the background music in the video should be.. um.. background. 😉 It’s a little so loud sometimes that it obscures some words.
Joyce Huff says
November 14, 2017 at 7:56 amI really want to try this recipe. But everytime I try to print out this recipe, the 5 boxes off to the side (the ones that have P, f, y, a symbol and the email symbol) print on top of the list of ingredients. What do I do to get rid of these so that the recipe prints out clearly? Thanks for your help.
Heather Cheney says
November 15, 2017 at 10:07 amThanks for letting me know! I just sent it over to my tech guy to figure out and hopefully he’ll have it resolved soon!
Leyla says
September 26, 2017 at 12:18 pmWhat if we want to cook in oven? How much degrees and how many minutes? :((
Heather Cheney says
October 4, 2017 at 8:09 amI’ve never tried baking this and it’s only formulated for the microwave so I’m not sure it would work. If you end up trying it, let me know!
Sandi Johnson says
September 16, 2017 at 12:45 pmHi Heather —
I realize it’s been 5 years since you 1st posted your Coffee Cake in a Mug recipe, but it’s been reposted since then, so you now have a whole new bunch of folks trying it out! I just came across it today & I’m going to try it soon, but also wanted to grab the Pumpkin version, since you know — all the stores are so subtly hinting to us that it’s already Pumpkin Season!
Sadly, however, your Pumpkin Coffee Cake in a Mug recipe link doesn’t work anymore. Can you get a webmaster kind of person to fix it? Hey — maybe that person is you? I’d really appreciate it — and I saw that at least one other person wants to access the recipe too, so she’ll appreciate it as well!
Thanks in advance,
Sandi J.
Heather Cheney says
October 4, 2017 at 8:12 amThe link in the post should be working now, thanks for letting me know. Here’s the link again, too. 🙂 https://heatherlikesfood.com/2-minute-pumpkin-coffee-cake-in-a-mug/