I had fun playing in my kitchen today and made a Chocolate Crazy Cake in a Mug! Not familiar with Crazy cake? The recipe is also known as Wacky Cake and Depression Cake – No Eggs, Milk, Butter, Bowls or Mixers! It’s an awesome go-to recipe for egg/dairy allergies and fun to make with kids. The recipe dates back to the Great Depression. It’s darn good cake that’s inexpensive to make, super moist and delicious.
READ GREAT REVIEWS FROM PEOPLE WHO TRIED THIS RECIPE ON PINTEREST (PHOTOS)!
Learn more about the Depression era cake recipe below.
Crazy Cake – No Eggs, Milk, Butter or Bowls
I have never made a cake in a mug in the microwave before and wasn’t sure if it could be done with the Crazy Cake recipe. I have seen tons of recipes for single serving microwave mug cakes and wanted to give it a try. I did a quick Google search for mug cakes and actually came across a Microwave Vegan Wacky Cake. After a few adjustments and attempts, I have an awesome go-to recipe for a single serving Crazy Cake that takes just minutes to make – super moist, absolutely delicious chocolate cake! The best part, everyone in my family can enjoy it because it’s egg-free.
Crazy Cake in a Mug
- 5 Tablespoons flour (all-purpose)
- 4 1/2 Tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons cocoa (unsweetened)
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch of salt
Wet Ingredients
- 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
- 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil (or canola oil)
- 4 1/2 Tablespoons water
Directions
- Each microwave cooks differently, adjust time accordingly! One person made the cake in 1 minute 40 seconds, and another in 1 minute 20 seconds.
- Make sure your baking soda is fresh, vinegar too, they are what make the cake rise.
- If you want a neater mug cake, mix the cake batter in a small bowl, then pour the batter in the mug.
- You can add mini chocolate chips to the batter for a super rich chocolate cake…or do what I did, throw some on top after you make it, while it’s still warm! Mmm, mmm good!
Monte
Fantastic! This is so simple and so good. Thank you, Mary! I didn't have a large mug, so I used a small cereal bowl. I also used the small tweaks suggested by Olen Seifer plus bumped up the cocoa to 1T. At 2 minutes in the microwave it was perfect. Total time from start to finish was 15 minutes.
Gabbi
Was craving something sweet but hadn't gone grocery shopping… and now I have a new go to. Tried it without the vanilla and it's still amazing! Topped it with powdered sugar and drizzled caramel
ajgood
I am having a mug-full of this glorious cake…It is amazingly light and tastes fantastic! It is not too sweet, not overly chocolately..it is just perfect. I am a having it with some vanilla ice cream and the combo is amazing. Thank you so much for sharing such a great recipe that is made with items that I had in my pantry!
Jessica's in Barcelona!
This was delicious! I made a few substitutes and it came out really well.
Sub white flour for oat flour
Sub vinegar for lemon juice
Sub oil for apple sauce
Sub sugar for 18 drops of liquid stevia
Add a pinch of salt
I'm sure it's not as decadent as the original recipe…but it was still really good and a perfect health meal for breakfast!!!!
sandstorm
I made this tonight and put it in the largest mug I had and at the 60 second mark it bubbled up and over the mug. I tried it a second time in a 2 cup measuring cup and it came out perfect at 80 seconds in my microwave…. definitely use a large enough mug or you'll have a mess to clean up. I also added 8-10 chocolate chips and some cool whip to top it off. DELISH!!!!!!
Shawnee Om Shanti Cat Santuary
I will try this but my mug brownie recipe is quicker and easier. 4 tbsp. flour, 4 tbsp. sugar, 2 tbsp. cocoa, 2 tbsp. oil, 2 tbsp. water, dash vanilla. That's it! Mix in mug and nuke a minute, or sometimes a bit more.
Anonymous
I added a couple of hershey kisses to the recipe because I love super sweet things! Turned out great 🙂
Michelle Summer
This is great! I've made crazy cake for years, but I have never made a little one like this. It turned out great! Instead of a mug, I make it in a cereal bowl — spray it with cake release first, and it tips out easily. It can be cut into 2-4 servings. Butterscotch chips are good in this too! Thanks again – great recipe!
Anonymous
Can this recipe be pre-made (meaning mix everything together into a mug), cover and refrigerate, and later stick in a microwave? How long can it be stored like this?
Kelly Martin
I have been searching ALL week for a good chocolate mug cake… I've had a sweet tooth and if I buy a whole cake, I will eat it. This is THE best one! took me all of 5 minutes and it's DELICIOUS!!! Thank you so much for this recipe.
Innkeeper Seely
Actually the vinegar is to release the chocolate flavor from the cocoa. (Dutch processed cocoa is plain cocoa tempered with an acid. The internet has plenty of articles on the science of cocoa.) The wells make no difference. Yes, the baking soda and vinegar make a fun reaction but the extra gas released really isn't staying in the batter. The type of liquid oil makes no difference either although I would not recommend olive oil. Remember, they didn't have exotic oils during the Depression. Don't try to melt butter for this though because it won't work. I use it to make wedding cakes and it is always perfect. I am usually making a triple batch of ingredients if not more. I dump all of the dry ingredients into a mixer then add the wet in any order and mix on low.
Anonymous
Hi my sister and I just made this while our mom left us home alone and it messed up our microwave… So we put everything in and followed all the steps correctly, we put it in our microwave for 1 minute and 40 seconds. We open our microwave to have it splattered all over our microwave and it was down the side of the mug. Next thing I know is that I am watching to make sure our mother doesn't come in on us cleaning the kitchen… After a while we successfully cleaned up the mess. Our mom didn't come home yet so we were like okay let's try this again and follow the steps more carefully! We did it more carefully and put it in for only a minute this time. Well it happened again and we were cleaning the microwave! On the bright side the batter didn't taste too bad!
Anonymous
Hi! Do you think I am able to use sunshine and canola oil? I don't have pure canola oil. The only oil I have is mixed sunshine and canola :p
Anonymous
I was really really skeptical of this. But I made it nonetheless and it is AWESOME. The only flaw was my own fault: I couldn't find the cocoa powder so I used hot cocoa mix instead, so naturally, it's bland – but I put chocolate syrup on it to help. I did find the cocoa powder (after I'd put the cocoa mix in…) and can't wait to try it!
Anonymous
What does "cook on high "mean??
Cami Scott
This was very delicious! Today was my husband's birthday and we have not had our gas oven hooked up due to floor replacement making it more difficult to bake things. So I wanted to be creative and found your website. I found I was out of cocoa powder so I used pumpkin spice and cinnamon with some chocolate chips in my husband's and apple pie spice with applesauce and 1tsp of sugar in the one I shared with our children. They both turned out well and my husband really enjoyed his! Thank you for a delicious treat!
Anonymous
This afternoon I was craving chocolate cake and only wanted to make a small serving. Wow! This was perfect! It was delicious and so easy. This is a keeper. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Erin Kodama
Just to follow up on my questions above, I ended up making the wet and dry ingredients ahead of time and mixed them right before putting them into the microwave. I found that microwaving multiple mugs at the same time did take a little bit longer than just doing one. So, we just had to keep an eye on it. It was a really fun activity for my nephew and me. We added chocolate chips and coconut flakes and it was really tasty!
Thanks for this awesome recipe!
Erin Kodama
This is so awesome! I can't wait to try it out tonight. Can the batter be mixed ahead of time? And can multiple mugs be used in the microwave at once or does it need to be one at a time?
Allie
Didn't have cocoa so made the recipe as it calls without it and added chocolate chips-so yummy! its like a chocolate chip cake
Anonymous
Wow, I haven't tried the cake. But after reading all the comments and various changes, I am gonna try it asap. The gluten free, toaster oven, standard oven and substitutions where great. I love to hear good kitchen talk….
Anonymous
It was OK. Maybe I did something wrong. It needed more chocolate and more sugar for my taste. Thanks for the easy recipe!
Una
Once a month I treat myself to a yummy dessert and I've been going to mug cakes so that I won't have left overs. I have tried many. But this one is def. the best! I substituted the water with strong coffee to enhance the chocolate flavor. This is THE best one I've tried, so moist, Thank you!
Danielle Magee
I healthied it up a bit and it still tastes ammmaaazzziiiinnggg! A few simple swaps! GF flour, 2 tablespoons of stevia insted of 4.5 of sugar, raw cacao powder , apple cider vinegar & coconut oil. Tastes like a gooey choc pudding.
Reyna Lane
I liked the crazy cake! The only problem was that it exploded in the microwave. Anything I might have done wrong?