Vegan Apple Cider Doughnut Mug Cake

This vegan mug cake allows the flavors of fall to shine! It’s reminiscent of apple cider doughnuts in a fast and convenient single serving option. All you need are a few simple pantry staples and less than two minutes cook time.

Is there anything more delicious than a fresh apple cider doughnut in October? I can’t think of anything that rivals it. It’s always a great day when we make it to an orchard in the fall. Picking the apples is fun but that warm doughnut… let’s be honest, that’s what we’re really there for!

If you’re as big a fan of these as I am, you’re in luck because I went ahead and made you a single serving, make-at-home version. Best of all, it’s ready in five minutes flat and features mostly pantry staples.

Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need to make it:

• Ground flax (to make a flax “egg”)
• Apple cider (such as Simply Apple)
• Coconut oil
• Brown sugar
• Cane sugar
• White whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
• Baking powder
• Cinnamon
• Sea salt

You’ll start by making a flax “egg” by combining the ground flax and cider. This is one of my favorite hacks for vegan baking, or in cases when you don’t have any eggs left. It’s also perfect when making a small batch recipe. You can’t really divide an egg into thirds, so using flax + liquid allows you to make a much smaller amount and use it as a binder.

Once all of your ingredients are mixed together, it should resemble a cake batter. This only needs 75 seconds in the microwave and the result is a moist and perfectly sweet single serving vegan mug cake.

Substitutions

Flours

I tried this with varying amounts of almond flour and while it was delicious, it was a bit “mushy” and not cake-like at all. However if you want to make this gluten-free, you can certainly make it this way. You may just want to cut down on the liquid slightly.

Fat

Butter should work just fine in place of the coconut oil here. I wouldn’t, however, recommend any sort of liquid oil. I tried both olive (flavor was too strong) and canola (texture wasn’t quite right) without success.

Sugar

I found the combination of white and brown sugar to yield the best flavor, but feel free to sub coconut sugar for the brown or use just one type. Liquid sweetener likely won’t work here though since the sugar is important for the volume of the cake and would provide extra moisture.

Don’t forget to finish it with an extra dusting of cinnamon and sugar. This is probably the most important part in getting that authentic apple cider doughnut vibe.

Now who wants one?

You might also like:

• Breakfast-Worthy Apple Crisp
• Vegan Oatmeal Cookies with Vanilla, Dates & Almond Butter
• Salted Tahini Brownies (small batch)

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