Desserts are my weakness and as much as I try to make them less often, that is one thing I can’t stay away from. When choosing my Blogging Marathon themes for July, my husband requested me to choose more savory themes and stay away from sweet. I was quite late to register for the month due to our travel and vacations and turned out that I did not have many options left to choose. When I saw the theme for Single serve desserts still open, it was too good for me to pass. My first recipe under the Single serve dessert theme is this quick and easy to make Single Serve Microwave Carrot Cake.
We all love carrot cake and I make it quite often as cupcakes for my boy’s school snack or when having company over. Loaded with juicy carrots, pineapples and crunchy nuts, it is a joy to bake it. The best part about the carrot cake for me is, I have a jackpot recipe from my husband’s colleague and it is one of the best tasting carrot cake I have eaten.
I stuck to the same line when making this quick and easy version of Single Serve Microwave Carrot Cake. I used almost the same spices and made few changes to make it work in the microwave. The end result for perfect spongy cake with beautiful crumbs and all it took was about a minute to bake. I used small clear ramekins to bake the Single Serve Microwave Carrot Cake. Initially I was planning to make it in a mug, but then thought what is carrot cake without frosting.
Then there was a change of plan to bake the Single Serve Microwave Carrot Cake in small clear glass ramekins. This was the perfect size to slice in between and smear with some quick cream cheese frosting. The quantity I made was supposed to be for 2 mug cakes, but turned out that I was able to make 4 with the smaller bowls that I chose. So, we each had a piece of our own to enjoy.
Preparation time – 5 minutes
Cooking time – 1 minutes 15 seconds
Difficulty level – Easy
Ingredients to make Single Serve Microwave Carrot Cake – (makes 2 tall mug Cakes or 4 smaller ones)
- All Purpose flour – 1/2 cup
- Cinnamon – 1 tsp
- All spice – a big pinch
- Ground cloves – a big pinch
- Baking soda – 1/4 tsp
- Baking powder – 1/2 tsp
- Flax meal – 2 tsp
- Carrot – 1/2 cup (finely grated)
- Brown sugar – 4 TBSP
- Milk – 4 TBSP
- Sour Cream – 1 TBSP
- Butter – 1 TBSP (melted)
- Vanilla extract – 1/2 tsp
For the Cream Cheese Frosting –
- Cream cheese – 3 TBSP
- Butter – 1/2 tsp
- Vanilla – 1/2 tsp
- Powdered sugar – 3/4 cup
Procedure to make Single Serve Microwave Carrot Cake –
- In a bowl, combine all the wet ingredients along with the grated carrots. Make sure that you grate the carrots really fine as we are going to use the microwave to bake them quickly. Large chunks of carrot might taste very raw.
- In another bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Mix them to combine using a wire whisk.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix gently to combine. Do not over mix as the cake will turn our hard.
- Grease a couple of ramekins well with butter. Add the prepared batter to the bowl. Make sure that you fill it less than half way through as it will rise during cooking in the microwave. My ramekins were quite small and it was scary to watch them when cooking as I was constantly worried that they would spill out.
- Microwave for a minute in 50% Power. The batter did rise quite a bit, so make sure that you are cooking it in low power. After a minute, cook it further for about 15 more seconds in full power to complete the baking.
- Remove the ramekins from the microwave and set it to cool. Remember that the bowls will be quite hot to handle. So remove it carefully.
- Once they cool down, run a knife along the edges of the bowl and remove the cake. Slice the cake in between and spread the cream cheese frosting in between the layers. Spread some frosting on the top as well and serve.
Procedure to make the Cream Cheese Frosting –
- Soften a cream cheese in the microwave and whisk it well. Add the vanilla and the butter and combine.
- Slowly add the powdered sugar and mix well to combine.
- The frosting is ready to use now.
Ingredients
- All Purpose flour - 1/2 cup
- Cinnamon - 1 tsp
- All spice - a big pinch
- Ground cloves - a big pinch
- Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
- Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
- Flax meal - 2 tsp
- Carrot - 1/2 cup finely grated
- Brown sugar - 4 TBSP
- Milk - 4 TBSP
- Sour Cream - 1 TBSP
- Butter - 1 TBSP melted
- Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp
For the Cream Cheese Frosting -
- Cream cheese - 3 TBSP
- Butter - 1/2 tsp
- Vanilla - 1/2 tsp
- Powdered sugar - 3/4 cup
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine all the wet ingredients along with the grated carrots. Make sure that you grate the carrots really fine as we are going to use the microwave to bake them quickly. Large chunks of carrot might taste very raw.
- In another bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Mix them to combine using a wire whisk.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix gently to combine. Do not over mix as the cake will turn our hard.
- Grease a couple of ramekins well with butter. Add the prepared batter to the bowl. Make sure that you fill it less than half way through as it will rise during cooking in the microwave. My ramekins were quite small and it was scary to watch them when cooking as I was constantly worried that they would spill out.
- Microwave for a minute in 50% Power. The batter did rise quite a bit, so make sure that you are cooking it in low power. After a minute, cook it further for about 15 more seconds in full power to complete the baking.
- Remove the ramekins from the microwave and set it to cool. Remember that the bowls will be quite hot to handle. So remove it carefully.
- Once they cool down, run a knife along the edges of the bowl and remove the cake. Slice the cake in between and spread the cream cheese frosting in between the layers. Spread some frosting on the top as well and serve.
Procedure to make the Cream Cheese Frosting -
- Soften a cream cheese in the microwave and whisk it well. Add the vanilla and the butter and combine.
- Slowly add the powdered sugar and mix well to combine.
- The frosting is ready to use now.
Subhashini says
This looks so tempting to me. Single serve carrot cake definitely makes it a lot more easier to control portions especially when trying to limit indulgence.
Sandhya Ramakrishnan says
I agree Subhashini! Thank you.
Veena Krishnakumar says
You are tempting me Sandhya!!This looks too too good
chef Mireille says
I love how you presented a simple mug cake as a pretty layer cake
Stephanie Simmons says
I love making little single-serve desserts in the microwave! Carrot cake means it’s healthy, too – right?! 🙂