Keto Lemon Mug Cake (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free)
By Carine Claudepierre
Published on 08/05/2019 - Last updated on 10/26/2023
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This Keto Lemon Mug Cake is the most delicious almond flour mug cake to snack on the keto diet.
An easy 5-ingredient mug cake with a tangy lemon flavor and only 7 grams of net carbs.
You know how much I love lemon keto recipes, especially lemon cakes.
I recently shared with you my keto lemon pound cake recipe, and you requested a smaller size recipe. Say hello to my keto lemon mug cake!
What’s A Lemon Mug Cake?
Lemon Mug Cakes are simple cake recipes made in a mug and cooked in the microwave in less than 2 minutes.
They are quick and easy breakfast or snack recipes that you can make in a heartbeat.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This Lemon Mug Cake recipe is amazing because it is:
- Gluten-Free
- Low-Cab
- Keto-Friendly
- Dairy-Free
- Paleo
- Ready In Under 5 Minutes
- 5 Ingredients
How To Make Keto Lemon Mug Cake
This keto lemon mug cake is the easiest recipe to share with your loved one and is made with only 5 ingredients.
Ingredients
Let’s see what you need to create this simple moist, spongy lemon mug cake.
- Almond Flour is an amazing keto flour that creates moist, spongy cakes. If you have a nut allergy, you can replace almond flour with sunflower seed flour.
- Egg – this recipe can’t be made egg-free but eggs are keto-friendly.
- Baking Powder – or half the amount of baking soda.
- Lemon Juice – I used fresh lemon juice.
- Sugar-Free Crystal Sweetener – I love Monk fruit crystal or erythritol but feel free to use xylitol, all with the same ratio. Read my review of keto-friendly sweeteners to find the best ones!
- Lemon Zest – this is optional, of course, but flavorsome and won’t add carbs. I grated some zest from my homegrown lemon. Make sure you use untreated lemon before adding zest to your recipe.
Cooking This Keto Mug Cake
Mug cakes are usually baked for 90 seconds in the microwave.
You must use the high power (800W) of your microwave for perfect baking results.
If you don’t have a microwave, mug cakes can be baked in a small ramekin in the oven.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and bake our mug cake for 12-15 minutes.
You know it is cooked when a pick inserted in the center of the mug cake comes out clean or with few to no crumbs on it.
Serving Keto Lemon Mug Cake
Keto lemon mug cake is delicious on its own or topped up with unsweetened coconut yogurt. It’s also delicious, served with a cup of my bulletproof coffee for breakfast.
Coconut yogurt is made of only 2 ingredients: coconut cream and probiotics. It is a delicious dairy-free keto yogurt, and I love the combo of lemon and coconut.
Otherwise, use unsweetened whipped cream or Greek yogurt.
Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe is for one large mug cake or 2 small mug cakes as in the picture. One large mug cake, the whole recipe, contains 7.4 grams of net carbs.
To decrease the carbs, split the recipe in half and store the other half in the fridge for 24 hours in a sealed mug, or share with a friend!
More Keto Mug Cakes
If you love easy keto mug cakes as I do, you may want to try the other mug cake recipes below:
Don’t forget to leave me a comment below if you made this recipe and save it on Pinterest for later!
Did You Like This Recipe?
Leave a comment below or head to our Facebook page for tips, our Instagram page for inspiration, our Pinterest for saving recipes, and Flipboard to get all the new ones!
Keto Lemon Mug Cake
Ingredients
- 1 Egg regular size
- 4 tablespoons Almond Flour
- ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 ½ tablespoon Granulated Sweetener erythritol or Monk Fruit or Xylitol
- 2 tablespoons Lemon Juice
Optional
- 1 teaspoon Lemon Zest – use organic untreated lemon
- 2 tablespoons Blueberries -fresh or frozen
Serving ideas
- 1 tablespoon Coconut Cream or heavy whipped cream
Instructions
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together egg, almond flour, baking powder, sugar-free crystal sweetener, and lemon juice to form a consistent cake batter.
- Add in some optional ingredients now, if desired, like lemon zest or blueberries – fresh or frozen.
- Transfer the batter into a tall microwave-safe mug. Your mug cake is going to rise and double in height so make sure the mug you use is high enough to prevent the mug cake batter from overflowing in the microwave. Don't microwave into 2 mugs or it will impact the microwaving time consequently. Bake all at once and share!
- Microwave on high power (800W) for 90 seconds.
- Remove from the microwave and cool for 2 minutes before eating and adding any toppings.
- Enjoy directly into the mug or unmold on a plate and half the recipe to share!
Baking method
- Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F)
- Place the batter into a medium-size oven ramekin or 2 small ramekins.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes. Make sure you check the baking process after 8 minutes and every 2 minutes. Use a skewer that you insert in the center of the mug cake. It is baked when it comes out with no (or very little) crumb on it. Note that if you are using smaller ramekins and half the batter in two ramekins the cakes cook faster between 8-12 minutes.
Storage
- Microwave baked cakes don't store well, no more than 30 minutes to 1 hour. After that, the texture dries out really fast and you will lose the spongy cake texture. I recommend baking the mug cake if you intend to store it for 2-3 days at room temperature.
Notes
Tools
Getting Started What Is Keto? Macro Calculator Sweetener Converter Intermittent Fasting Keto Fruits Keto Vegetables Keto Flours Fighting Keto Flu Healthy SweetenersWant My Kitchen Equipment?
Nutrition
About The Author
Hi, I'm Carine, the food blogger, author, recipe developer, published author of a cookbook, and founder of Sweet As Honey.
I have an Accredited Certificate in Nutrition and Wellness obtained in 2014 from Well College Global (formerly Cadence Health). I'm passionate about sharing all my easy and tasty recipes that are both delicious and healthy. My expertise in the field comes from my background in chemistry and years of following a keto low-carb diet. But I'm also well versed in vegetarian and vegan cooking since my husband is vegan.
I now eat a more balanced diet where I alternate between keto and a Mediterranean Diet
Cooking and Baking is my true passion. In fact, I only share a small portion of my recipes on Sweet As Honey. Most of them are eaten by my husband and my two kids before I have time to take any pictures!
All my recipes are at least triple tested to make sure they work and I take pride in keeping them as accurate as possible.
Browse all my recipes with my Recipe Index.
I hope that you too find the recipes you love on Sweet As Honey!
Disclaimer
The recipes, instructions, and articles on this website should not be taken or used as medical advice. You must consult with your doctor before starting on a keto or low-carb diet. The nutritional data provided on Sweetashoney is to be used as indicative only.
The nutrition data is calculated using WP Recipe Maker. Net Carbs is calculated by removing the fiber and some sweeteners from the total Carbohydrates. As an example, a recipe with 10 grams of Carbs per 100 grams that contains 3 grams of erythritol and 5 grams of fiber will have a net carbs content of 2 grams. Some sweeteners are excluded because they are not metabolized.
You should always calculate the nutritional data yourself instead of relying on Sweetashoney's data. Sweetashoney and its recipes and articles are not intended to cure, prevent, diagnose, or treat any disease. Sweetashoney cannot be liable for adverse reactions or any other outcome resulting from the use of recipes or advice found on the Website.
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Delicious. Light texture… not heavy like many GF mug cakes. I had to microwave 2 full minutes in a powerful Microwave. Could be because I used frozen blueberries! The first time I made it it was undercooked. No problem…I slid it back in my mug and added 45 seconds. It was still delish. Recommend spraying the mug so you can have easy cleanup.
Thank you for the lovely feedback, so glad you love it, XOXO Carine
I just made this lemon cake and it was delicious. Thank you so much for your recipe.
Have all the ingredients except the lemons. Will go to the supermarket tomorrow . Can´t wait!
I just love lemon cake, thank you.
Carine, your recipes are fabulous, thank you for sharing them with us 🙂 I’m not sure the oven temperature is right though? I wanted to make 2 smaller portions and after 17mins at 180C, the batter was still uncooked so I had to up the temperature to 210C and cook it for another 6 minutes. It was absolutely delicious nonetheless!
Thanks for being here with trying my recipes ! It is more a microwave recipe than oven one, so I agree that depending on the oven mug size i can take longer to bake. I am glad it come out delicious tho! Thanks for sharing your feedback, Enjoy the recipes on the blog, XOXO Carine
I am so glad I found your site. This is one of the easiest I can make. Thank you so much.
I am so glad to hear that ! Thank you ! XOXO Carine
What a flavorful and light dessert in minutes! Thanks for sharing!
Gld you love it! XOXO Carine
The lemon blueberry mug cake hit the spot. I was craving something fruity, light and airy. This was all of those! My husband who normally doesn’t like sweets asked me to make him another.
I am so happy your husband love it too! Thanks fo trying my recipes, XOXO Carine
Made this and love it…very simple to make. thank you
Thank you! Take care, XOXO Carine
I just made this keto lemon cake and I followed the ingredients except for I Substituted the almond flour with coconut flour. Some thing did not go so well and I’ve substituted a lot because I don’t use almond flour but my dessert tasted very dry and smelled like baby throw up. I shall try again. Wish me luck
You should never swap almond flour for same amount of coconut flour, it cant work! The reason your baking is so dryis simple, coconut flour contains 4 times more fiber than almond flour which means it is extremely water absorbent. All recipe calling for almond flour can be only replaced by same amount of sunflower seed flour. If you relly want to use coconut flour in a recipe calling for almond flour you will have to cut amount by around 1/4 and add some moisture to the recipe (eggs, milk). I hope it helps, Enjoy the recipe on the blog, XOXO Carine
One of my favorite go to keto desserts. Thanks for sharing. It’s so easy to make and like you said, share with a friend. It’s a perfect portion
I’ve just made the lemon mug cake with blueberries – it’s DELICIOUS! Recommended!
Yeah! I am so happy for you and thanks so much for taking a minute to report back, Enjoy the recipes on the blog, XOXO Carine.
Love you dessert recipes
Loved the lemon mug cake, few ingredients, easy and quick, yummy!
Thank you so much! I hope you will try more recipes from the blog. XOXO Carine.
I am staying in a resort with a tiny kitchen, so yesterday I made this in the microwave (yes, I brought all my food stuffs). It was AMAZING. I made it again today with wild raspberries we found on our hike. Question—could I quadruple it and make it in the oven? If so at what temp and for how long?
I am pretty sure this will work well in the oven too. If you quadruple the recipe you will have to bake for at least 25-35 minutes in a round cake tin, greased at 180C (350F). Let me know how it goes and enjoy your holiday! XOXO Carine.
Could I use coconut flour, if so how much???
Probably. Coconut flour has 4 times more fiber than almond flour so if you really want to use 100 % coconut flour you will have to adjust the recipe a lot and probably use way less. I didn’t try so I can’t help with that sorry . Enjoy the blog recipes, XOXO Carine.
Love your recipes
Thanks so much for trying my recipes here! XOXO Carine.