5-Minute Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Mug Cake

This gluten-free chocolate chip mug cake bakes in the microwave and is ready from start to finish in 5 minutes. It’s fluffy, perfectly sweet and the ideal cake for one or two people. Mix up the recipe right in the mug, so no bowl is needed. It’s also dairy-free and egg-free.

Be sure to check out more of my gluten-free mug cakes including my fast and fluffy gluten-free chocolate mug cake that’s ready in 5 minutes, my gluten-free vanilla mug cake and my tart and sweet gluten-free lemon mug cake.

Baking a Cake in the Microwave

You may not think of the microwave for baking but it’s the quickest way to bake a cake. With just the right method and ingredients, you can have a fluffy, moist cake more quickly that you thought possible.

The most tricky part is the bake time. This mug cake was tested in my microwave (950 watts) and took 2 minutes. If your microwave is more or less powerful, you may need to adjust the baking time up or down by 10-15 seconds.

Towards the end of the cook time in the microwave, it may look like the cake is about to spill over the side. Unless you’ve used too small a mug there’s no need to worry about this. The cake will rise quite a bit and then settle back down at the end. It will still be super fluffy and moist.

Ingredients

Gluten-free flour blend – I use King Arthur Measure for Measure gluten-free flour for almost all of my baking. It creates fluffy, moist cakes and it’s the most affordable of the certified gluten-free options I’ve tested. Cup4Cup is another option that my readers use but I don’t test with it because it contains milk powder.

Chocolate chips – I initially tested the recipe with mini chocolate chips thinking that with such a small cake, mini chips would be better. But they melted too quickly so standard size chips are best. Semi-sweet, dark chocolate or milk chocolate chips are all good options.

If you need a gluten-free dairy-free option, my preferred is Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips. They have great flavor and texture and are not waxy like some chocolate chips can be.

Milk is the liquid for this cake. Use whole milk or 2%. I am mostly dairy-free so I use a non-dairy milk sub. I like soy milk best for cakes but I have also used coconut milk (not the canned stuff), almond milk and rice milk all with good results.

Oil is the best way to add moisture to a gluten-free cake. It does a better job of making a cake fluffy and moist. And for a mug cake that mixes up directly in the mug, oil is much easier to incorporate.

Vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste or vanilla powder will all work to add vanilla flavor to this cake. Be sure to check out my DIY gluten-free vanilla extract recipe. It has just two ingredients and is a big cost saver.

Vanilla has gotten crazy expensive lately so if you need to, use imitation vanilla extract. The cake will still be moist, fluffy and tasty.

The rest of the ingredients are the basics for baking – sugar, baking powder and a couple of pinches of salt.

Mug Cake Toppings

This mug cake with its gooey chocolate chips is great on its own, but here are so yummy ideas to dress it up:

• The most simple topping would be more chocolate chips. Sprinkle them on as soon as it comes out of the microwave. They’ll stay soft for quite a while.
• Frosting is the classic cake topping and my vegan chocolate cream cheese frosting or my vanilla buttercream frosting are super easy. If you use frosting, be sure to wait until the cake is cooled.
• Marshmallow topping on a warm mug cake is pretty wonderfully gooey.
• Chocolate syrup or hot fudge are my favorite easy toppings.