This rich Chocolate Mug Cake cooks in the microwave in just a couple of minutes. You can share with a friend or keep it all to yourself for a decadent treat.

This chocolate mug cake is great for satisfying any sweet tooth. We almost always have all the ingredients on hand and it is ready in 5-10 minutes. I love baking, but I don’t love having a whole cake around the house. This quick, single-serve dessert is a great option when you don’t have a crowd to feed. Plus … chocolate. How can you go wrong with chocolate?

Want to make the mug cake a little healthier?

You can make some adjustments to this recipe if you are trying to cut out fat and sugar. See my suggestions below. I have not tested any of these (alone or in combination) for this specific recipe, so I can’t guarantee results. I have tried each of these methods with other recipes, so if you are looking to make this a little lower in fat and sugar they are worth a try.

To reduce the fat in the recipe

Try to replace some or all of the oil in the recipe with an equal amount of:

Unsweetened apple sauce. This should not increase the sodium in the recipe at all. It will make it a bit sweeter, so you’d want reduce the sugar by a teaspoon or two to account for this.
Plain nonfat Greek yogurt. This would add a bit of sodium to the mug cake. Three tablespoons of Greek yogurt has about 15 mg sodium.
Mashed banana. Like the apple sauce, this will add a bit of sweetness but no extra sodium to the recipe. You may want to reduce the sugar slightly to make up for it.
Canned pumpkin. Make sure that you are using plain pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin has a marginal amount of sodium, so this may add 2-3 mg sodium in the entire mug cake.
Other pureed fruits. I have not tested these myself, but I have read that you can use other pureed fruits such as pureed prunes or pear sauce. Like the apple sauce and banana, these would each add sweetness but little to no sodium.

To reduce the sugar in the recipe

You can also try to reduce the sugar by replacing some of all of the sugar in the recipe with zero calorie sweeteners such as:

A sugar replacement such as Splenda, Truvia, or Stevia. These sweeteners tend to be sweeter than sugar, so be sure to follow instructions on your specific product. For example, if you are using Stevia drops, you likely will only need a few drops to replace the full three tablespoons of sugar.
Sugar free coffee syrup, such as Torani. Some of these syrups have sodium, so be sure to check the label. You will have to reduce the liquid (milk) in the recipe to make up for the added moisture. I haven’t tested these syrups in this recipe, but I would probably start with 2-3 Tablespoons to replace the 3 Tablespoons of sugar in the recipe.
Replacements such as raw honey, agave nectar, maple syrup, coconut sugar, etc. If you are looking to stay away from refined white sugar, you can try to replace sugars with some of these sweeteners. I rarely replace sugar with these types of sweeteners so I cannot offer specific advice on using them.

Remember that I haven’t tested any of the fat or sugar replacements in this specific recipe so I cannot guarantee results. If you try any of them, let me know how they work in the comments. I’d love to hear how they work for you.