Learn how to make the best and most delicious Healthy Chocolate Mug Cake that is so rich and decadent, moist and fluffy, that you’d never know it is low-fat, oil-free, vegan, gluten-free and much healthier than traditional mug cakes made with oil and eggs! It is truly divine and only 8 ingredients!
HEALTHY CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
Don’t let the fact that this Vegan Healthy Chocolate Mug Cake is low-fat fool you! It is fluffy, moist, rich and incredibly delicious! It does not taste low-fat at all. I already have a really popular chocolate vegan mug cake on the blog that has all 5 star reviews from readers, but I’ve had requests for a nut-free version over time since that one relies on almond flour.
My reader, Estee, specifically requested one recently and what can I say, my family and I loved this one even more! It is so soft and fluffy, but rich and moist. The best part is it contains no nuts, no coconut, no gluten, no eggs and no oil, so nearly everybody should be able to make it!
Compare this to all those mug cakes out there, including vegan ones, they have 30-40 grams of fat. This one is much lower in fat but so good, we moaned the whole way through eating them.
This mug cake is seriously a showstopper too, if you can say that about a mug cake, haha. This baby rises SO much, like a chocolate souffle’, which you can see in these pics! It is a beauty.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED
- Superfine oat flour: I always use Bob’s Red Mill oat flour, as it is superfine and not gritty and produces perfectly fluffy results. I find this is better than homemade oat flour, which tends to be gritty. Oat flour is healthy, fiber-rich and so much healthier than white flour.
- Tapioca starch: This helps to bind and make the cake fluffy. All oat flour would make it a bit too dense. Tapioca starch is one of my favorite replacement for eggs.
- Unsweetened cocoa powder
- Baking soda
- Unsweetened applesauce: Applesauce instead of oil is not only much lower in calories, it has nutritional benefits.
- Pure maple syrup: Natural sweetener instead of refined sugar. Maple syrup also helps make this cake moist.
- Vanilla extract
- Dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips: I used the Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips.
HOW TO MAKE HEALTHY CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
Step 1: Add the oat flour, starch, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt to a bowl and whisk very well.
Step 2: Add the water, applesauce, syrup, vanilla and ONLY 1 tablespoon (15g) of the chocolate chips. Stir until well mixed and moistened. Don’t overmix once it comes together.
The batter will be on the thick side, as you can see, it’s like a muffin batter, not a runny cake batter.
Step 3: Add the batter to a mug and top with the remaining chocolate chips (1 tablespoon).
Step 4: Cook the mug until the top is dry and no longer wet batter. See details on recipe card below for times and extra details.
Step 5: Cool the mug cake 4-5 minutes before eating. As it will be very hot and will finish cooking as it sits a few minutes. Enjoy!
Check out all those melty chocolate chips. OMG. SO good!
HOW TO MAKE THIS MUG CAKE IN AN OVEN
I know some people may not own a microwave, so to bake this in the oven, it will yield 3 tall muffins. Divide the batter into 3 nonstick muffin liners in a muffin pan. Place extra chocolate chips on the top of each. Bake at 350°F (177°C) for 15-20 minutes until risen really high and a toothpick is basically clean. Mine were perfect at 18 minutes.
MORE VEGAN CAKE RECIPES
- Vegan Toffee Mug Cake
- Easy Vegan Lemon Cake (6 Ingredients)
- Vegan Funfetti Birthday Cake
- Vegan White Wedding Cake
- Vegan Gluten-free and Grain-free Vanilla Cake
- Vegan Almond Butter Cake
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cake
- Vegan Pumpkin Cake
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If you make this recipe, be sure to leave feedback below and share your pic on Instagram or Facebook and tag me @thevegan8 #thevegan8!
Healthy Chocolate Mug Cake (Low-fat!)
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons (48g) superfine oat flour (I always use Bob's Red Mill)
- 2 teaspoons (5g) tapioca starch
- 2 tablespoons (12g) unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda (NOT baking powder)
- 1/8 heaping teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 tablespoons (40g) pure maple syrup
- 2 1/2 tablespoons (38g) unsweetened applesauce
- 2 1/2 tablespoons (38g) room temperature water
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 tablespoons (30g) dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life mini ones) DO NOT OMIT THESE
NOTE
- As always, I recommend a scale for accuracy so your results turn out as mine do and you have success! Just use a bowl and the scale, do not get out measuring cups to compare to grams. Just use the grams listed for accurate results
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- Add the oat flour, starch, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt to a bowl and whisk very well.
- Add the water, applesauce, syrup, vanilla and ONLY 1 1/2 tablespoons (23g) of the chocolate chips. Stir until well mixed and moistened, making sure to get the flour from the bottom but don't overmix. The batter will be on the thicker side, but should be smooth. Do not be tempted to add water. It is the consistency similar to a muffin batter. This is what will yield a fluffy mug cake. Adding too much water to oat based cakes results in gummy desserts.
- Spoon the batter into a large tall mug, as this mug cake will rise A LOT!! Don't use a short 8 oz mug. If you prefer, you can divide the batter into 2 normal 8 oz mugs. For reference, the mugs pictured each hold 1 3/4 cup water and I did a full mug cake in each one. They tower just above the mug beautifully. Give the mug a side to side shake and smooth out the top.
- Top with the other tablespoon of chocolate chips on top of the batter.
- FOR REFERENCE, my microwave is 1000 watts. Of course microwaves can vary, so yours may need 10 seconds less or more. If doing 1 tall mug (all the batter in one mug) microwave 1 minute 25 seconds. The top should look dry across (the batter, not the chips obviously). If it still looks really wet, microwave 5-10 more seconds.
- If doing 2 standard mugs (with the batter divided between the two mugs) then microwave one mug cake at a time for 1 minute 15 seconds for each, separately. I found these times to produce a perfect cake. Fluffy and cooked, but wonderfully soft and moist. Of course microwaves can vary. The key is the top looking dry and not wet batter.
- Cool 4-5 minutes before eating. It will be extremely hot and it finishes cooking a bit while sitting. This makes quite a hefty mug cake that easily serves 2 people.
Notes
- OVEN VERSION: I know some people may not own a microwave, so to bake this in the oven, it will yield 3 tall muffins. Divide the batter into 3 nonstick muffin liners in a muffin pan. Smooth out the tops with the back of a spoon. Place extra chocolate chips on the top of each. Bake at 350°F (177°C) for 15-20 minutes until risen really hill and a toothpick is basically clean. Mine were perfect at 18 minutes.
Nutrition
I must have done something wrong. I didn’t have vanilla and used large chocolate chips. Was very dry and raised about an inch.
Susan, yes definitely something isn’t right. If it didn’t rise, then you left out the liquid it sounds like or used way too large of a container or left out the baking powder. The cake rises high just like the photos and is not dry at all.
This was pretty good. I wouldn’t call it fluffy…I ground my own oats so I think the texture was a bit off but it tastes amazing!!
Glad you enjoyed it Mary! Yes, unfortunately home ground oats will never be as fine as store-bought, which will definitely result in a less fluffy texture.
Immediately went and made this, it was absolutely delicious! Perfect!
Yay Laurie, so very happy to hear you loved it!!
This was fantastic, thank you! I subbed pumpkin for the applesauce and added a little extra water and maple syrup to compensate for the thicker puree, then added a little pumpkin spice and it was an awesome, fast fall treat! I doubled it and divided into 4 portions and in my microwave it took about 50 seconds.
Yum! Great idea!!
Super fluffy and quick. I used 1/2 the maple syrup because I like my chocolate a little more bitter and used 1/2 water 1/2 applesauce to make up the fluid difference. I really liked it so I remade it as per recipe for my Husband who likes his food sweet and the texture and ease was perfect both times. Great way to have a quick sweet treat when it’s too warm to turn on the oven!
So happy you loved it!
This was delicious!!!! Can the batter be prepared ahead of time and cooked later? If so, would I put the prepared batter in the fridge until I am ready to cook?
So glad you loved it Kim! No, you don’t want to make the batter ahead of time, that would cause the liquid to absorb all the flour and make the cake gummy. You could premix the dry ingredients, but don’t add the liquids until right before you make it.
I made these in the oven and they were so delicious!!
Yay Carla! Thank you for sharing!
Is tapioca starch the same as tapioca flour?
Yes!
So I made this last night and wow wow wow!!! I didn’t have tapioca starch or corn starch so I used all purpose flour and it worked! It came out so good I almost ate all of it haha I ate half last night and saved the rest for lunch dessert today 🙂 thank you!!!!
Hard to split this recipe with someone! I have made it I don’t know how many times. My favorite is to use almond extract. I put 1/2 cup thawed black cherries in the bottom of the cup first 🙂
Forgot to give 5 stars!
This recipe is just amazing. I could not believe how fluffy it turned out!!! Cruelty free and oil free, winning!
Hi! I really want to make this but I’m not able to eat maple syrup 🙁 is there any way I can substitute sugar and perhaps add milk to get the same consistency? Please let me know! Thank you!
You can use agave, it will give the same results! Milk and sugar will be much more runny than syrup consistency and won’t bake the same. Using another liquid sweetener like agave will yield the same results.
Hello, is sweetened apple sauce ok for this as recipe as I cannot find unsweetened anywhere! Thank you
That should work!
Ok i NEVER comment on websites, but i just had to say this is the BEST healthy mug cake i’ve made so far and i’ve tried literally all recipe variations. Thankyou! highly recommend 10/10
Yay, so so happy to hear that!!
5 Star recipe! (but aren’t all of the Vegan 8 recipes worthy of 5 stars?) This chocolate mug cake is decadent without any of the guilt. I make this weekly as a special treat for myself. So easy and goes with with a comfy couch and some Netflix.
Aww thank you Lora, so kind of you to say that!! So happy you love this so much!
Amazing!! I made this in a large 20 oz mug. I used my own ground oat flour, arrowroot starch instead of Tapioca. Everything else the same. I measured, no scale. I cooked it in my microwave for 1 min 35 sec. it still looked wet on sides that pulled away so I put it in for 30 more seconds. It was still moist on the sides. I let it sit 5 min and it was perfect in every way!
SO happy to hear you loved it Kristen!
Hi thank you for a great recipe. I am going to make it today! Just wanted to know when you use applesauce as an oil or fat replacement in baking what would the ratio be? Would like to try it with other recipes that I have. I would also like to know about the tapioca starch as an egg replacer. How much would replace an egg in a recipe. I am vegan only 6months now so trying to find ways to replace stuff as I love baking. Thank you.
Hi Natasha, it will always depend on the recipe, because in many recipes, especially cookies, fat is needed for the texture to turn out right. Please see my post about baking oil-free here, it explains a lot and shares many of my recipes! https://thevegan8.com/how-to-cook-bake-without-oil/
Fantastic texture and super yummy! I’ve already made it 3 times! Thanks a lot for sharing this Brandi! <3
Yay, glad to hear it!
Hi! Thanks for this great recipe! Unfortunately, when I made this for the kids, it turned out really dense and it didn’t rise at all. Could that be because my oat flour is not superfine? I couldn’t find any that mentioned this on the packaging where I live. Well, I thought it was superfine but I could still see a tiny bits in the dough, so maybe not! I’m definitely going to try again, is it worth finding a different flour? Not sure what else could’ve gone wrong. Definitely made a mistake somewhere! Thanks!
Hi Chris! That’s not right because this nearly doubles in size and is very fluffy. Did you forget the baking soda?? It is the baking soda (not baking powder) that makes it rise so much. If you bought the oat flour and almond flour, then that shouldn’t be the culprit. Did you use superfine almond flour as well?
Brandi! Thanks for another amazing recipe!!! I doubled the recipe anas made the oven version last night. The batter was a little runny compared to how you described it so I was afraid I had really messed it up by doubling it. But they turned out beautiful and delicious!!! Thanks for sharing with the world!!!
*and, not anas. Sheesh! I’m not good at typing on my phone!!!
Yay, thank you so much Amy!
I made this chocolate mug cake and it tasted wonderful. Thanks for the same.
awesome to hear!
Another winner Brandi!! I remember how awesome the first mug cake you had was. Husband requested brownies tonight and I was going to make the ones from your cookbook but it was a little too late. Thought of the new mug cake recipe and went right too it! So delicious and the perfect treat. Crowd pleasing brownies will happen tomorrow! Thanks as always for the care and work you put into your recipes!
These are absolutely amazing! We don’t use a microwave and this recipe results in three generously sized muffins. I feel like I’m cheating when I eat this. Forever grateful for finding you. 🙏🏼
I made this tonight and it is the yummiest chocolate cake I have ever had! Thank you so much for this quick and healthy dessert recipe!
This was absolutely divine! I made it with Choc Zero chips, so the only sweetener was the maple syrup. I couldn’t believe how high it rose. I made other mug cakes and they never rose like this one. Thanks so much for creating this healthy dessert that I don’t feel guilty about.
A friend who is allergic to oats asked if she could use Bob’s 1 to 1.
Hi Kelly, so glad to hear that! I do not know about Bob’s if it will work. I don’t use commercial blends. They can always try it, I just can’t say whether it would make it too dry or not. A better idea might be to try my other vegan chocolate mug cake and sub the oat flour for Bob’s there since it’s only 2 tablespoons oat flour instead of all oat flour like in this one. This other one uses almond flour too, which helps it to be moist. Here is the recipe: https://thevegan8.com/vegan-chocolate-mug-cake-gluten-free/