Five minutes from cupboard to spoon, and it makes exactly one serving, which is the entire appeal. No leftover cake sitting on the counter making decisions for you.
What sets this apart from most mug cakes is three tablespoons of quick-cooking oats in the batter.
The oats are doing real work
Mug cakes have a reputation for coming out rubbery, and the reason is usually structural. Flour and egg cooked fast in a microwave sets tough, because microwave energy heats from the inside and the proteins tighten quickly.
Oats interrupt that. They absorb moisture, they add bulk that is not gluten, and they break up the crumb so it stays tender rather than setting into a dense puck. The texture comes out closer to a baked oatmeal than to a cake, which is more pleasant than it sounds.
Quick-cooking oats specifically. Rolled oats are thicker and will not soften in two and a half minutes, so you would find chewy flakes through it.
There is no egg in it
Worth noticing, because most mug cake recipes have one and eggs are a large part of why they go rubbery.
The structure here comes from flour, oats and baking powder, with six tablespoons of milk and two of oil providing the moisture. It also means the batter is more forgiving, since there is no egg to overcook.
Spray the mug first
A twelve ounce mug, sprayed with cooking spray before anything goes in.
Batter with sugar in it welds itself to ceramic under microwave heat. Sprayed, the cake releases if you want to turn it out, and the mug washes in seconds rather than needing to soak.
Twelve ounces is the right size. Smaller and the batter rises over the rim and onto the microwave floor. Much larger and the cake spreads thin and overcooks at the edges.
Liquid first, then dry
Milk and oil into the mug and combined, then the flour, sugar, oats, baking powder and salt stirred in.
Doing it this way means you are stirring dry into wet rather than trying to work liquid into a mug full of flour. In a container this narrow, with a spoon, the second approach leaves dry pockets at the bottom that you cannot reach.
Scrape the bottom corners of the mug specifically. That is where unmixed flour hides.
Chocolate chips through, peanut butter on top
Two tablespoons of chips stirred in, then a tablespoon of peanut butter dolloped in the centre.
The chips distribute and melt into pockets. The peanut butter stays as a distinct molten centre, which is the point of putting it in the middle rather than stirring it through. Stir it in and you get a peanut butter cake. Dollop it and you get a chocolate cake with a peanut butter core.
Two and a half minutes, and watch it
Microwave on high until a toothpick in the centre comes out clean.
Microwaves vary more than ovens do. Two and a half minutes is the guide for a standard 1000 watt machine. A more powerful one may need two minutes, a weaker one closer to three.
The failure mode here is overcooking, which happens fast. Check at two minutes on the first attempt and add in fifteen second increments. An overcooked mug cake goes dry and dense and there is no recovering it.
Serve it immediately
The recipe says so and it means it more than most recipes do.
Mug cakes are at their best within about two minutes of coming out. As they cool the crumb firms considerably and the molten peanut butter centre sets. Left ten minutes it becomes something noticeably worse.
The numbers
862 calories and 945mg of sodium in one serving, which is worth stating plainly.
The calories come from two tablespoons of oil, chocolate chips, peanut butter and three tablespoons of sugar in a single portion. The sodium is a quarter teaspoon of salt plus half a teaspoon of baking powder, both of which are significant contributors in a recipe this small.
Cutting the salt to an eighth of a teaspoon brings the sodium down meaningfully without much effect on taste.
Making it lighter
Reducing the oil to one tablespoon and using a splash more milk gets the calories down. The cake comes out slightly less tender and still perfectly good. Halving the chocolate chips is the other easy change.
Variations
Almond butter or any nut butter works in place of peanut. A pinch of cinnamon or espresso powder in the dry ingredients deepens the chocolate without adding anything you would taste directly.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Mug Cake
Description
A quick microwave mug cake with chocolate chips, quick oats and a peanut butter centre, made in one mug.
Ingredients:
Instructions
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Spray a 12-ounce coffee mug with cooking spray
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Combine the milk and oil in the mug
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Add the flour sugar oats baking powder and salt and stir to combine, scraping the bottom corners of the mug so no dry pockets remain
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Stir in the chocolate chips then dollop the peanut butter into the centre without stirring it through
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Microwave on high until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, about 2 1/2 minutes. Check at 2 minutes and add time in 15 second increments if needed
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Serve immediately.
Note
Nutrition per serving from source: 862 calories, 105g carbohydrates, 14g protein, 46g fat, 9g saturated fat, 7mg cholesterol, 945mg sodium, 5g fiber, 56g sugar. Sodium is high for a single dessert portion, coming from a quarter teaspoon of salt plus half a teaspoon of baking powder; reducing the salt to an eighth of a teaspoon lowers it noticeably. Use quick-cooking oats rather than rolled, which will not soften in the time given. Spray the mug first. Microwave wattage varies, so check at 2 minutes and add in 15 second increments. Serve immediately.
