Our microwave lemon mug cake is in celebration of  THREE April birthdays among our McDaniel Nutrition Therapy dietitian team! For all of those times, you needed a quick celebratory recipe on the fly, this is it. Personally, I love all things lemon, and I love how citrusy flavors balance out the sweetness.

What’s the Short-Cut?

The short-cut in the recipe is the tool we use to cook our mug cake: the microwave! It reminds me of my 80’s days, when I popped out a chocolate cake from that Easy Bake Oven! If you’re not as affectionate towards lemon as I am, search “microwave mug cakes,” and you’ll find chocolate, vanilla…the list goes on.  While we don’t believe birthday cakes require any element of “health” in it, we did use olive oil + kefir milk. But, pretty sure the quick microwave cook kills off any gut-health promoting bacteria found in kefir milk. So, feel free to use any milk of choice!
Happy Micro-Baking + Celebrating!
lemon mug cake

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lemon mug cake

Microwave Lemon Mug Cake with Lemon Glaze

  • Author: Jennifer McDaniel
  • Prep Time: 2
  • Cook Time: 2
  • Total Time: 4 minutes
  • Yield: 1-2 servings 1x

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 T. all-purpose flour
  • 2 T. sugar
  • ¼ t. baking powder
  •  t. salt
  • 1 T. lemon juice
  • ¼ c. lemon (or plain) Kefir milk
  • 2 T. olive oil
  • 1 t. vanilla extract
  • ¼ t. lemon zest
  • 2 t. lemon curd

Glaze

  • 2 T. confectioner’s sugar
  • ½ t. lemon juice

Instructions

  1. In a very large mug, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
  2. In a small bowl, combine lemon juice, Kefir milk, olive oil, extract, lemon zest and lemon curd. Stir well.
  3. Combine wet and dry ingredients in mug and whisk together until smooth.
  4. Bake in microwave, on high, for 2 minutes 15 seconds.
  5. While cake is baking, whisk together powdered sugar and lemon juice for glaze.
  6. Carefully take mug out of the microwave and drizzle with glaze.

Notes

Use a large enough mug so that there is no overflow to mess up your microwave. The mug should only be half full prior to baking.

To check for doneness, just touch the top. It should be firm and bounce back slightly. If it appears doughy, put back in microwave for another 5-10 seconds.

Your mug cake will sink after it is taken out of the oven. It is supposed to do that!

The mug cake will not be brown on top like a regular oven-baked cake. The brown on a traditional cake is caused by the caramelization of sugar which occurs at 320 degrees. A microwave reaches a high temperature of only 212 degrees.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: one mug
  • Calories: 506
  • Sugar: 29.1 g
  • Sodium: 297.6 mg
  • Fat: 30.7 g
  • Saturated Fat: 5.4 g
  • Trans Fat: 0 g
  • Carbohydrates: 55 g
  • Fiber: 1 g
  • Protein: 3.9 g
  • Cholesterol: 33.3 mg