Vegan Peanut Butter Mug Cake – Healthy
By Carine Claudepierre
Published on 07/30/2020 - Last updated on 01/22/2023
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This moist Vegan Peanut Butter Mug Cake is the best vegan snack to fix your cake cravings in a minute.
A simple healthy mug cake recipe for plant-based food lovers!
What’s A Healthy Mug Cake?
A healthy mug cake is a simple recipe cooked in 90 seconds in the microwave and made with simple, wholesome, and nutrient-loaded ingredients.
This mug cake uses oat flour as the base of the batter for a gluten-free mug cake.
Why You’ll Love This Mug Cake
This healthy mug cake is absolutely delicious, and it is:
- Gluten-Free
- Dairy-Free
- Egg-Free
- Ready In 5 Minutes
- Only 6 Wholesome Ingredients
How To Make Vegan Peanut Butter Mug Cake
If you are new to microwave mug recipes, let me guide you through simple tips to success.
Mug size
It is one of the most important parts of baking in a mug, choosing the right mug. In fact, you must use at least an 8-ounce (250 ml) coffee mug to ensure the best cake texture.
If your mug is too small, the batter will overflow, and you will end up with half the batter out of the mug.
Microwave power
Not all microwave ovens work at the same power. Like regular ovens, they have different levels of energy.
In order to make the best cake in a mug, you must set your microwave to 800W power, which is a very standard power.
If you are not sure about your microwave power, always start baking the cake for only 70 seconds, stop and check the texture and return to the microwave in 10-second bursts to get your favorite cake texture.
As a general rule, when the cake rises, stop the microwave in the following 10 seconds, and the texture should be the best!
Enjoy immediately
Cake baked in the microwave must be served immediately. In fact, microwave dry cake batter very quickly and consequently they won’t store very well.
Vegan Peanut Butter Mug Cake Ingredients
All you need to make this single-serve peanut butter cake are 8 ingredients.
- Peanut butter – the best is natural peanut butter with no added sugar and no added oil. You can also use almond butter to boost your plant-based protein intake and reduce saturated fat. But overall, any nut butter you love works in the recipe as long as the jar is fresh. For a nut-free option, sunflower seed butter or tahini is great. Pure Peanut Butter is always vegan so pick one with only peanuts!
- Baking powder or half the amount of baking soda if preferred. However, baking soda won’t rise the cake as much and can leave a bitter aftertaste.
- Oat flour – make your own oat flour following my tutorial. It is the best healthy option to make this vegan mug cake recipe. However, spelt flour or all-purpose flour work too, but the cake will be dryer.
- Maple syrup or any liquid sweetener you like, agave syrup, or rice syrup.
- Unsweetened almond milk – or any non-dairy plant-based milk you like, oat milk and soy milk work too.
- Vanilla extract or vanilla essence.
- Vegan dark chocolate chips – this is optional, but the cake batter is pretty bland with the chips, and I highly recommend this addition.
Making Healthy Mug Cake Batter
I recommend preparing the batter directly in the mug using a small whisk to combine the ingredients together and avoid lumps.
First, combine maple syrup, peanut butter, and vanilla.
Then, add the almond milk at room temperature, not cold, or it will form flour lumps.
Finally, whisk in the oat flour until it creates a smooth light brown cake batter. Feel free to add the vegan chocolate chips at this time.
The last step consists of placing the mug in the center of your microwave and bake at 800W for 70-90 seconds, or 10 seconds after the cake rises.
Baking Time And Tips
A cake baked in the microwave is cooked 10 seconds after it rises.
It means that you will stop the microwave within 10 seconds after seeing the cake reaching its maximum height.
Then, the cake will slightly deflate and keep cooking as the mug is very hot.
That’s why it is better to start with a 70-second baking time on high power (800W).
If you really like your cake denser or firmer, simply return to the microwave and bake by an extra 10-second burst until it reaches your favorite texture.
Serving Mug Cake
It is better to serve this peanut butter cake immediately.
Of course, wait 1 or 2 minutes before digging in, or you may burn yourself.
Also, if you have a strong sweet tooth, you can top your cake with delicious toppings like:
- A scoop of vegan ice cream
- Extra vegan dark chocolate chips
- Whipped coconut cream
- a drizzle of jam – for the PB&J combo lovers!
More Vegan Mug Cakes
If you love quick vegan desserts made in the microwave, I have more recipes for you to try.
Made this vegan snack recipe and want to share a picture of your lovely cake with me? Join me on Instagram.
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Vegan Peanut Butter Mug Cake
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons Oat Flour - or all-purpose flour or white spelt flour
- 2 tablespoons Peanut Butter (Unsalted) - natural, no added sugar, no added oil
- 1 tablespoon Maple Syrup - or agave syrup
- 2 tablespoons Plant-Based Milk - almond milk or soy milk
- ¼ teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract - or vanilla essence
- ⅛ teaspoon Salt - optional, if peanut butter unsalted
- 1 ½ tablespoon Vegan Dark Chocolate Chips - optional
Instructions
- In a microwave-safe coffee mug (minimum size 1 cup/250ml), whisk together peanut butter, maple syrup, and vanilla until smooth.
- Whisk in almond milk, at room temperature, baking powder, and ultra-fine oat flour (or flour of choice) until it forms a light batter with no lumps.
- Stir in vegan dark chocolate chips if desired, or keep the batter plain.
- Sprinkle few extra chocolate chips on top if desired.
- Microwave on high power (800W) for about 70 seconds or stop the microwave 10 seconds after you see the cake rising to its maximum height. Remove from the microwave carefully. It is hot! Check the texture. It should be moist and soft, and the top should deflate. If it is not cooked to your liking after that time, return to the microwave and cook again by 10-second bursts until done – no more than 90 seconds in total. Note that the longer you microwave the mug cake, the denser it will be.
- Serve immediately with a dollop of vegan ice cream or plain.
Baking option
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C)
- Grease an oven-proof ramekin with oil, add the cake batter and bake for 12-15 minutes until cooked through.
- Serve immediately with toppings of your choice.
Really good flavor and texture! I’ve tried tons of mug cakes and this one is worth making for sure!
Thank you!!
This was fantastic! I had to give up eggs and go gluten-free and tree nut free recently and I’ve been struggling with what to eat for breakfast (there are a lot of other foods I need to avoid as well), and this was so tasty and satisfying! I just put about 5 chocolate chips but I added a handful of dry roasted peanuts and that was a tasty crunch. It was crumbly so next time I’ll try putting a little more milk. I used Gluten free AP flour instead of oats as I can’t have oats. Can’t wait to try this again! Thank you!
Could I use mashed banana or applesauce instead of maple syrup? Thinking of making this for my 1 year old and would like to avoid sugar!
Probably but it might turn the batter a bit gummy and dense.
This tasted good, but it was very crumbly. Is it supposed to fall apart?
Not at all, if it is crumbly it means it’s too dry it can be that you over cook it or you used too much flour that absorb more liquid
I did try it with a little more milk and it turned out great. Thanks for your help.
Thank you. I tried again with a smidge more coconut milk and the same amount of time and it was perfect. This is a great quick healthy treat.
It’s soooo good omg.
Granted it didn’t look the best but it tastes amazing
Made this last week and my husband and I both LOVED it! Having company over, and wondering: could the batter be made early in the day, then microwaved just before serving? Thanks so much for the recipe!
We love this recipe and sometimes even have it for breakfast! I add bananas or blueberries!
I’ve tried several mug cake recipes and this by far is my favorite! So moist and delicious, and I so prefer using maple syrup to sweeten rather than granulated sugar – no crunchy texture! I microwaved it 75 seconds, I will likely do closer to 90 next time. 10/10 delish!
Thank you so much!
This recipe is so easy and so delicious! I added bananas and blueberries!
This is just the best! So quick and easy to make, if I’m craving something sweet I just quickly make one up. Have tried adding a few different bits, I’m particularly fond of cacao to make it extra chocolatey. Offered to make it for my husband he said no thanks but I made him one anyway. He said he’d try it but wouldn’t finish it, he demolished it in seconds! Thanks for such an awesome recipe 🙂
Thanks so much !
my first mug cake – tasty! I made it with half tahini and half peanut butter, based on what was in the frig. I cooked it for 80 seconds. Maybe it could have gone another 10 seconds … it still seemed a bit undercooked. I am at a high elevation though, so baking tends to take longer. For me it was too sweet – next time I’ll cut the maple syrup in half
Very goog
I make this more than I’d like to admit. When I am craving something sweet after the kids are in bed, but I don’t want to make a mess of my kitchen, this is the recipe that I turn to. Thank you!
I did use peanut butter with sugar, but it was super yummy! Topped it with some unsweetened cacao chips and vanilla soy ice cream
I added raising and some cinnamon and it turned out amazing! Thank you for the recipe, that was my best mug cake to date!