Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Mug Cake ready in 5 minutes or less! This easy mug cake recipe is light and fluffy with just the right amount of peanut butter flavor. All you need is 5 ingredients at a minimum to make this delicious single serving dessert recipe!
Light, fluffy, and infused with delicious peanut butter flavor, this easy peanut butter mug cake recipe is the ultimate dream for peanut butter lovers.
Ready in 5 minutes or less and made with 5 ingredients in a coffee mug, this easy dessert recipe is the perfect on-demand treat.
For my fellow dessert lovers, easy mug recipes like this can be a real life enhancer.
I love that single-serve recipes come together in a flash for those times a sweet craving strikes. Plus, the single serving portion means I can’t get myself into too much trouble.
From healthier to decadent, my mug recipes run the gamut of appropriate for everyday use, to indulgent for special occasions.
Take for instance my Oatmeal Banana Bread Mug Cake. It is macro-friendly as it even includes a boost of protein.
My Gluten-Free Mug Brownie, on the other hand, is far naughtier.
I think you’ll find this peanut butter cake in a mug to be a lovely balance of indulgence but not overly sweet.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe:
Lightning Fast and Easy!: Including gathering up the ingredients, this recipe takes me about three minutes to make and two basic steps.
Delicious Flavor: Rich peanut butter is the main flavor here, and we get pockets of chocolate goo when chocolate chips are added.
Incredible Texture: The texture of this cake is light and fluffy with a lovely moist crumb.
Easy to Customize: Add more sweetener, extra chocolate chips, chopped nuts, and more!
Allergy Friendly: For those who are gluten-free, dairy-free, and/or egg-free (or vegan), this healthier mug cake recipe fits seamlessly with your dietary restrictions. A vegan peanut butter mug cake everyone will love!
I have found mug recipes made with an egg can sometimes result in a rubbery texture, which is one of the reasons you won’t see an egg in this amazing mug cake.
Let’s discuss the simple ingredients for this gluten-free peanut butter mug cake recipe! They are all straightforward and you can find them at any grocery store.
Peanut Butter Mug Cake Ingredients:
Peanut Butter: Pick your favorite kind of peanut butter and go to town! I use regular creamy peanut butter rather than natural peanut butter because I like that it has a little bit of added sugar.
For me, the sugar in the peanut butter and the pure maple syrup equates to just the right amount of sweetness.
If you use an unsweetened peanut butter, be sure to add the chocolate chips or the cake won’t be very sweet.
While alternative nut and seed butters like almond butter and sunflower butter will work, be sure you enjoy the flavor of whatever you use because you will be able to taste it.
Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour: The base of the recipe, we need a gluten-free all-purpose flour blend. As always, I use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour.
Any GF blend that contains starches like rice flour and potato starch should work as long as they are designed to be a 1:1 replacement for regular all-purpose flour.
If you aren’t gluten-free, you can use regular all-purpose flour although I haven’t tested it myself. You may need to add a little extra all-purpose flour because GF flours tend to be slightly more absorbent than regular wheat flour.
Pure Maple Syrup: The sweetener here! Pure maple syrup is my preference over cane sugar because I try to keep food as unrefined as possible.
That said, you can use 1 tablespoon of brown sugar or white sugar instead of pure maple syrup and add an extra tablespoon of milk.
Milk of Choice: Select your favorite dairy or nondairy milk. I use unsweetened oat milk. Almond milk, soy milk, cashew milk, coconut milk, and cow’s milk all work.
Baking Powder: The leavening agent here, we need a small amount of baking powder to help the cake rise. Note that if you skip this ingredient, the cake won’t rise as much.
Gluten-free all-purpose flour blends do contain leavening agents but we still need to add a little more.
Sea Salt: A pinch of sea salt brings out the peanut butter flavor even more and also makes the cake taste sweeter without the need for extra sugar. Be sure you don’t skip the little shake of salt!
Optional Additions:
Pure Vanilla Extract: A tiny splash of vanilla awards us some warm flavor that we all love in baked treats.
Ground Cinnamon: I’m obsessed with adding ground cinnamon to my cakes, cupcakes, muffins, and cookies. It adds a sweet, warm nuance that simply enhances the experience.
Chocolate Chips: While chocolate chips are optional, I recommend them! Not only do they bring bursts of chocolate joy, but they also yield a fudgy texture when mixed into the cake. You can adjust the amount you use based on your personal preference.
Recipe Customizations:
- Replace 1 tablespoon of the milk with one tablespoon of melted butter for a luscious buttery flavor.
- For a chocolate peanut butter mug cake, you can add 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder and an extra tablespoon of milk.
- After making the cake batter, you can add an extra drizzle of peanut butter to the center of the batter for a molten peanut butter center. You can also do this with chocolate chips.
- For my friends who are grain-free, I don’t have a grain-free version using coconut flour or almond flour yet. If you are interested, feel free to leave me a comment below and I’ll feel inspired to make another version using a different flour.
- Swap out the chocolate chips for peanut butter chips.
If this is your first mug cake recipe, no sweat! The best part about this gluten-free mug cake is just how silly simple it is to prepare. It’s much easier than making a whole cake!
Now that we have the basics down for this microwave mug cake, let’s go over the step-by-step instructions on how to make this super easy peanut butter treat!
How to Make a Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Mug Cake:
Add all of the ingredients to a microwave safe mug (or a small bowl or measuring cup) and mix until a smooth cake batter forms and all the lumps of flour have dissolved.
There is no need to separate the wet ingredients from the dry ingredients as everything should mix together very easily. If you’d like, sprinkle extra chocolate chips on top of the cake batter.
Microwave for 60 to 75 seconds (on the regular high setting), or until the center of the cake has set up. I recommend starting with 60 seconds, then adding 8-15 seconds if the cake looks like it still needs more time.
The exact cooking time depends on the strength of your microwave; however, most microwaves will perform excellently under this 60-75 second timeframe.
An easy way of telling whether or not a treat is fully cooked is to take the internal temperature. Simply insert a digital thermometer into the center of the cake. If the cake reads 190 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, it is fully cooked.
The optimal temperature range for treats like this is 190-200 degrees F.
Dig in and enjoy! For a special treat, serve the mug cake with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream and a glass of milk.
So there we have it!
A tasty treat engineered specifically for those who adore peanut butter but don’t want a whole batch of goodies laying around to evoke temptation.
The next time your sweet tooth is talking to you, whip up this delicious peanut butter microwave cake.
The perfect treat for anyone who loves cake and the peanut butter chocolate combo!
If you love mug desserts like this, also try these reader favorites:
More Mug Desserts:
- Healthy Cinnamon Roll in a Mug
- Keto Chocolate Mug Cake
- Paleo Banana Bread Mug Cake
- Keto Mug Cake
- Paleo Vanilla Mug Cake
Enhance your life with this healthy peanut butter mug cake!
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp (24g) all-purpose flour, packed and leveled*
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- 1 Tbsp (15ml) pure maple syrup**
- 2 Tbsp (30ml) creamy peanut butter
- 4 Tbsp (60ml) milk of choice***
- 1 tsp avocado oil, optional
- Pinch sea salt
Optional Additions:
- 1 to 2 Tbsp semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ¼ tsp pure vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients to a microwave safe mug (or a small bowl or measuring cup) and mix until a smooth cake batter forms and all the lumps of flour have dissolved. There is no need to separate the wet ingredients from the dry ingredients as everything should mix together very easily. If you’d like, sprinkle extra chocolate chips on top of the cake batter.
- Microwave for 60 to 75 seconds (on the regular high setting), or until the center of the cake has set up. I recommend starting with 60 seconds, then adding 8-15 seconds if the cake looks like it still needs more time.
- Dig in and enjoy! For a special treat, serve the mug cake with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream and a glass of milk.
Notes
Nutrition
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