Every since my daughter found the moistest chocolate mug cake recipe on Pinterest our house hold has enjoyed individual portions of dessert from a mug. This past week my son gets the credit for helping us discover a new favorite: breakfast in a mug. So naturally we are sharing the invention of making a mug cake with pancake mix. Best part you get to say you are having cake for breakfast.
How do I make a mug cake?
What I do to make this is so basic it will take me longer to type it than actually make it:
- fill mug with ingredients
- microwave mug
- top with optional items
- eat it
How did I come up with this mug cake recipe?
I want to tell the story of how this recipe came about. It was one of my few moments of inventive thinking as a parent. My son has this hilariously teenager habit of asking what there is to eat. He naturally asks this after opening every cupboard, the fridge and the freezers (both of them sometimes). I think teenage boys get bored and then they realize that they are hungry. Cause they are always hungry. So it was summer time ad naturally he was awake finally and realizing his bear-sized hunger.
“Mom, what can I have to eat?”
“Cereal?”
“No more shredded wheat.”
“Scramble an egg?”
[boy makes face that doesn’t want to say, “That sounds like too much effort for a summer day”]
“I had leftover cooked carrots and hot chocolate” —side note: I drink hot chocolate every day, even in the summer
“ahhhh…no”
“Oh wait I have it. I know you are gonna like this. Use your tallness to get a mug of the top shelf.”
My son is such an obedient respectful kid that he got me a mug without asking. I turned to the pantry and grabbed the Kodiak pancake mix and my brain started turning on the idea of a pancake in a mug. My son, however, was totally moving forward on faith.
As I said my daughter makes the chocolate mug cake. In fact she make is so often we had to print the recipe out and pin it to the inside of a cupboard. So I grabbed that recipe and used it to gauge the amounts for things and what type of items to add to our mug cake with pancake mix experiment.
I mixed up what became the recipe below –on the first try!!
You can get mug cake inspiration for every meal on our Pinterest Board “Mug Cake Recipes”
How do you make a mug cake without eggs?
Use a pancake mix of course! I was only willing to try this because we had Kodiak cakes on hand. They put extra protein in their mix so it has some stick power. Teen boys don’t last long on straight carb white pancakes. They need heavy grains like wheat and as much protein as possible. Usually I get protein by adding eggs to things, but a whole egg for one mug cake would make it gross. Hence I was so pleased to have Kodiak PROTEIN cakes around. I suppose you could use basic pancake mix and add protein powder, but ever since the protein powder flatulence fiasco of 2014 we don’t keep that on hand. Ever!
And handed it to my son to try. This is where I admit to not wanting to try it. I thought it would be gross. Nobody makes an experiment right the first time. So I made him eat it. He said it was ok plain. Then we added some butter and syrup and he said that was even better.
My daughter –not a morning person–entered the kitchen and we forced her to try it. She said it was alright. That’s pretty much an “amazing” from her in the morning.
Now my turn….and my son had already eaten it all. Don’t worry I made another. It was tasty and so easy to make a mug cake with pancake mix. I should probably call it, ” mug pancake” but that just sounds weird to me like I rolled up a pancake and stuck it in a mug like a rosette or something.
Why is a breakfast mug cake a good idea?
So now my teenage son can make himself breakfast in a mug. It’s quick. It’s easy. It dirties minimal dishes. It’s warm food in the summer, but not unpleasantly hot in the summer (this is according to my son, remember I drink hot cocoa year round, but that another story about my husband’s air conditioning bill).
You might want to check out other recipes that involve mugs or breakfast or pancake mix
- Blue Velvet Mug Cake inspired by Disney World’s Pandora
- Pina Colada Green Smoothie (cause even I rode that trend for a bit)
- Keto Granola (cause we’ve all tried going keto too)
- Peanut Butter Surprise Muffins from FaveMom
Breakfast Mug Cake with Pancake Mix
Hot breakfast that is tasty like a mug cake but has protein like a real breakfast. Easy to make for teens who wake up late and barley have time to eat.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup Kodiak Cakes Protein Packed FlapJacks and Waffle Mix
- 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup reduced fat milk
- 2 Tablespoons semi sweet chocolate chips
- warm syrup (optional)
- butter (optional)
Instructions
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Using the largest mug you've got mix the pancake mix, oil and milk until fully incorporated.
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Fold in the chocolate chips.
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Microwave the mug for 60-70 seconds on full power
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remove from microwave (careful, it's hot)
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Top with butter and syrup to eat like a pancake, or scoop up plain.
Recipe Notes
Microwaves vary in wattage. This cooking time is for an 1100 watt microwave. If yours is less you'll need more time. If your wattage is more you'll need less time.
Also mug cakes are notorious for overflowing the one time you don't watch them. So keep and eye until you know your mug is the right size.
This is my kitty cat Kuiper –rhymes with “hyper”. She knows when we are cooking she always comes in the kitchen. Yeah, I am a bit cat-lay crazy.
