3-Ingredient Pumpkin Mug Cake

Pumpkin may be a fall staple, but I love pumpkin year round. It’s one of the most versatile foods in the macro friendly cooking arsenal, providing tons of moisture in high protein baked goods. In this case, I’ve packed it into a quick and easy pumpkin mug cake.

With 20 grams of protein and only 207 calories, this mug cake is the perfect candidate to receive a scoop of ice cream or fat free whipped cream. And at least for a few more months, it’s acceptable to add fall themed sprinkles for funzies.

How to Make This 3-Ingredient Pumpkin Mug Cake

Like my 4-ingredient chocolate mug cake, we’ll be cheating and using a sugar free cake mix from Swerve. I’ll save you my usual spiel about Swerve sweeteners and just say they’re zero calorie, gluten and grain free, and taste amazing.

If you’re curious about alternatives, you can try the sugar free cake mix from Pillsbury. My upside down pineapple mug cake uses their sugar free yellow cake mix.

And if you didn’t want to use cake mix or mess with flours, you could try something like my one-minute, 100-calorie protein brownie that uses pumpkin or apple sauce, protein powder, and cocoa powder.

Best Protein Powder to Use for Recipes

Once you have your cake mix situation nailed down, all you need to do is add protein powder and canned pumpkin. I used PEScience Whey and Casein Protein Blend for this pumpkin mug cake, but I typically use Dymatize 100% Whey in my recipes. I strongly recommend both.

Feel free to use any protein powder you’d like, though different types of protein may cook a bit differently. If you’re using a plant-based protein powder, for example, you may need to add a bit more pumpkin to hydrate the batter.

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Yield: 1 mug cake

3-Ingredient Pumpkin Mug Cake

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A quick and easy protein mug cake recipe.

Prep Time 3 minutes

Cook Time 2 minutes

Total Time 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 serving (27g) Swerve Vanilla Cake Mix
• 2/3 scoop (21g) PEScience Vanilla Protein Powder
• 3/8 C (90g) Canned Pumpkin
• 1 dash Pumpkin Pie Spice, optional

Instructions

1. Mix the cake mix and protein powder in a mug or small bowl before adding the pumpkin and stirring well. The cake batter should be fairly thick. A rubber spatula works great to spread it evenly in the bottom of the mug. (Optional: Add a dash of pumpkin pie spice on top before microwaving.)
2. Microwave for 75-90 seconds or until the center is solid. (The size of your mug/bowl will influence cook time. It's always better to undercook mug cakes than overcook when they don't contain food safety concerns like eggs.)
3. Top with fat free whipped cream or a scoop of lower calories ice cream. 

Nutrition Information

Yield

1

Serving Size

1 mug cake
Amount Per Serving Calories 207Total Fat 8gUnsaturated Fat 0gCarbohydrates 26gProtein 20g

More High Protein Recipes You Might Like

My pumpkin spice protein pancake bowl uses the readily available Kodiak Cakes pancake mix to create a 191-calorie breakfast, snack, or dessert.

My aforementioned 4-ingredient chocolate mug cake is a bit higher calorie with 272 calories, but it’s one of the best protein mug cakes I’ve ever made.