A traditional mug cake really is cake. It’s a dessert with lots of sugar and fat. It’s not unusual for one of those treats to have 500 to 600 calories. Yikes! Not healthy. Not helpful for fat loss. My mission here with our apple pie protein mug cake recipe was to cut calories at least in half, with more nutritional value, while giving you great fat loss-friendly macros, without any compromise in taste.
Once again, mission accomplished! The apple pie protein mug cake has only 263 calories, yet it has a full meal’s-worth of protein (35 grams per mug cake).
The high protein count comes mainly from the vanilla whey, which contains 24 grams of protein per serving. (Usually 31 grams of weight per scoop or approximately 1/3 cup). The rest of the protein is from egg whites, greek yogurt, and there’s even a little in the flour. All those ingredients combined get you a full meal worth of quality protein (which you rarely see in a snack or dessert).
A few companies make apple pie or apple cinnamon flavored whey. If you can find it, that would probably taste great. But vanilla works nicely, and is more widely available.
I’ve tried a few different flours and even combining various types and the taste is still similar. If you don’t have oat flour on hand (one of my favorites), all-purpose flour works fine. (Oat flour is widely available at health food stores, and on at Amazon as well. Arrowhead Mills and Bob’s Red Mill are popular brands).
The apple flavor comes from the applesauce (which by the way is a one for one fat alternative when you are baking light and wanting to save on calories). Add cinnamon to your liking. I usually use 1/2 a teaspoon (at least 1/4 teaspoon recommended), reserving a little more for sprinkling on top.
For a while I made these without whole fruit, but I was curious what these might be like with finely diced fresh apple chunks (also sprinkled with cinnamon), so I finally tried it. The mug cake is great without fresh apples, but including them is an improvement! It adds moisture and crunch, plus we can can legit say “apple pie” in the name.
You can avoid calorie-dense refined sugar by using any non-nutritive sweetener you prefer, such as Stevia, Truvia, and so on). A few packets go in the batter and then you can sprinkle a little more on top if you like, for sweetness or presentation. Feel free to adjust the amount to your own tastes.
Be sure not to overcook as you don’t want it to dry out completely, especially if you want this “gooey” version of the mug cake.
What if you don’t want it gooey? What if you want the whole thing solid like regular cake or a muffin? No problem. Simply omit one ingredient – the Greek yogurt. It’s the yogurt that helps keep the bottom moist and gooey molten.
When you leave out the yogurt, unless you undercook it, the finished product will be mostly solidified and dry, yet with a lightly-moist spongy cake consistency from top to bottom.
Don’t forget that since you’re using baking powder, the cake will rise up in the mug in the microwave, and if your mug is too small, it may rise over the top and spill over the edges. That’s why I like to use a nice big 18 oz mug).
You can eat this with a fork right out of the mug, or if you want the gooey stuff on top (much better), flip the mug upside down over a plate or ramekin before serving. (Makes for nice presentation too). Then what was the gooey bottom will now be your gooey top, almost as if you had put frosting on it.
Sprinkle some cinnamon and if you choose, additional sweetener on top, and then enjoy every bite of this apple pie protein mug cake recipe.
Oh, and in case your’re wondering: Are microwave ovens safe? (what science says)
Apple Pie High-Protein Mug Cake
Ingredients
- 17 g Oat flour (3 Tbsp)
- 31 g Whey protein vanilla (1/3 cup)
- 60 g Applesauce, unsweetened (1/4 cup)
- 24 g Diced apple
- 14 g Greek yogurt, nonfat, plain (1 Tbsp)
- 60 g Egg whites, liquid (2 Lg whites)
- 1/8 tsp Salt
- 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
- 3 Packets Noncaloric sweetener (Stevia, Truvia, etc)
Instructions
- Put dry ingredients in a small bowl or pyrex cup and combine thoroughly.
- Add the wet ingredients and mix well with a fork or spoon.
- Coat the inside of a large mug / coffee cup with non stick spray.
- Pour the batter into the greased mug.
- Microwave on high for about 60 seconds. It’s normal for the cake to rise up while cooking, then settle back down (so use a large mug).
- When it’s done, the top and edges will be set like cake, but the bottom will still be gooey.
- Let it sit for a minute or two to cool.
- Eat right out of the mug or (much better), flip the cake over into a ramekin (or plate/bowl) if you want it gooey-side up.
- Sprinkle more cinnamon on top, along with more sweetener (optional), and enjoy your apple pie protein mug cake!
Nutrition
Yes – it’s true. I am working on a Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle recipe book. In the meantime, keep checking back every week here at Burn the Fat Blog where I’ll share some of my most popular recipes. The ones that get the most feedback and highest ratings will be most likely to make it into the print book!
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Until next time,
-Tom Venuto,
Author, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle
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PPS. Missed last week’s recipe? Check out Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle High Protein Banana Bread
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Is there a way to bake this in a regular oven? Sounds like a Great Treat.
Thanks
I’m sure you can, but I haven’t tried, so at this point I can’t give you a baking time yet… I’ll have to look into that. But hey 60-sec in microwave… can’t beat that…
When will you come up with a vegan recipe?? Some of us bodybuilders are vegan!! On another note, you shouldn’t leave the yolks out of eggs, they have soo much protein and plain whites are like adding “nothing” to the recipe
Hi Jacqueline. I do know some bodybuilders are vegan! Ive got a handful of personal friends and colleagues in the bodybuilding space who are vegan, and I might add, they have great physiques, and I think it’s good to point out that one can build muscle being vegan. Im not a vegan though. Im not even vegetarian, so I don’t do vegan cooking, and so the majority of the recipes in my collection are not vegan. I do have a handful though (I just made a great chickpea salad last week), and quite a few that are vegetarian (meat free) and I can share on occasion, but the recipes on this site won’t be vegan focused. fortunately there must be hundreds of vegan food blogs out there, so there’s plenty of info in that niche. PS I use whole eggs in my recipes all the time – this one just happens to be egg whites only, which I often do if there is little or no difference in flavor or texture and or if I want to save calories. See my article on eggs (just updated) here:https://www.burnthefatblog.com/egg-whites-vs-whole-eggs/
I made a batch of these for some guests the other day. I just multiplied the ingredients by the number of people I was making them for and added it all into 1 bowl. I first tried to pour the mixture from the bowl into the mugs bit it went everywhere! So I used a soup ladle to pour the mixture into the mugs. Much cleaner!
Another time I tried to microwave 2 mugs at once but a minute wasn’t enough time and I had to mess around doing it a bit longer, then a bit longer again. I find it much easier just to do them 1 at a time in the microwave for a minute each.
Thanks for sharing your observations! Yep, mug cakes are pretty much classically made and served as a 1 serving meal. Someone else asked me if you could bake these. I hadn’t tried so I didnt know, but perhaps thats a way to do a batch. But since the nuking time is only a minute, its not that much trouble to do 2, 3, 4 in a row for a hungry group. Cheers!