Vegan vanilla mug cake with chocolate and raspberry

Let’s be honest here. Whoever invented the mug cake should be awarded some kind of medal. Meryl Streep got a Presidential Medal of Honor; why not the inventor of mug cakes? That lonely college student with a small supply of flour and sugar and baking powder and only a mug and a microwave to bake them, who did the math and decided it would be pretty cool to make their own single-serving cake while they pored over textbooks for hours on end, and who realized that they had just invented something miraculous and world-changing but also that this invention would not, alas, pay for their student debt. If anything, that person deserves a medal.

Because the mug cake is, indeed, miraculous. You take small amounts of very unhealthy ingredients and whisk them together in about 5 minutes and stick that shit in the microwave and bam! Cake! Our grandmothers did not have this luxury. It really is the hallmark of our times, the fact that we can make cake from scratch in mere minutes.

So it’s kind of sad that I only have one (lamely healthy) recipe for a mug cake on this blog. It’s about time I made some real-deal mug cakes with about three billion calories per serving and a nice amount of sugar.

Imagine my delight when, browsing in the library, I stumbled upon the cookbook Mug Cakes by Mima Sinclair (no, this is not another comped cookbook review, rest assured). The 40 delicious-looking recipes show that Mrs. Sinclair certainly knows how to make a good mug cake. She doesn’t skimp on the good stuff—butter, sugar, chocolate, peanut butter, all of that. It was truly a difficult decision to pick which to make first.

To start, I settled on a vanilla cake—but added chocolate chips and freeze-dried raspberries, just for shits and giggles.

Not literal shits, of course.

I was pleasantly surprised by the result. The cake tastes just like a slice of full-sized cake, which is important for a good mug cake. (Even if I cooked it in a little bowl, because I don’t really have any good mugs for this purpose.) The addition of raspberries was terrific, too, lending it a bit of tart and fruity flavor. I used freeze-dried raspberries since I had them available, but feel free to use fresh. For all of you god damn southerners without a few feet of snow hanging out on the ground in god damn March.

I might be a little bitter about that.

Just be sure to let the cake cool for about 5 minutes before eating, or you’ll burn your mouth and melt the whipped coconut cream at the same time, making your mug cake experience less than ideal. Trust me on that one.

Anyway. Here’s the recipe.

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Vegan vanilla mug cake with chocolate and raspberry

Adapted from Mug Cakes

Ingredients

28 grams • coconut oil, melted • 2 tablespoons

7 grams • ground flaxseed • 1 tablespoon

30 grams • warm water • 2 tablespoons

15 grams • nondairy milk • 1 tablespoon

8 grams • vanilla extract • 2 teaspoons

36 grams • superfine sugar • 3 tablespoons

36 grams • all-purpose flour • ¼ cup

1 gram • baking powder • ¼ teaspoon

Pinch salt

4 grams • freeze-dried raspberries, crumbled • 1 tablespoon

10 grams • nondairy chocolate chips • 1 tablespoon

30 grams • coconut cream • 2 tablespoons

3 grams • powdered sugar • 1 teaspoon

Directions

Grease a small bowl or mug, at least 1 ½ cups in volume. Place coconut oil, flaxseed, water, milk, and vanilla extract in mug and whisk with a fork. Stir in superfine sugar, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold in raspberries and chocolate chips.

Cook cake in bowl or mug in a microwave for 1 minute 45 seconds at 600W, 1 minute 30 seconds at 800W, or 1 minute 15 seconds at 1000W. Let cake cool for 5 minutes.

In a small bowl, whisk together coconut cream and powdered sugar until fluffy. Place whipped cream on top of cake; decorate with some more freeze-dried raspberries and chocolate chips. Munch.

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Cute, no?

I don’t have any other bowl cakes to show you from this blog, but here are some other lovely chocolate-chipalicious recipes for your enjoyment.

Vanilla chocolate chip cream-stuffed breakfast braid. Chocolate chips for breakfast? Can I get a yea?

Chocolate chip cookie dough-stuffed Oreos. Better than those lame storebought ones.

Cannoli crepes. Shhhh...don’t tell the French.