I’m often guilty of recency bias, saying that new recipes are one of the best I’ve ever made. It’s easy to forget about past recipes with a mouth full of chocolate cake, after all. But believe me when I say this chocolate protein mug cake is the best mug cake recipe on Mugs for Muscles to date.
And that statement is based primarily on flavor alone. If you take the macros into account, it’s definitely one of the best. With 24 grams of protein and only 272 calories, you won’t find many chocolate mug cakes with better nutrition stats.
How to Make This Chocolate Protein Mug Cake
Okay, this chocolate protein mug cake is technically cheating. This recipe, like my pineapple upside down mug cake, calls for sugar free cake mix. But unlike the pineapple mug cake which calls for Pillsbury, this chocolate mug cake uses Swerve Chocolate Cake Mix.
If you’re unfamiliar with the sugar substitutes from Swerve, they’re amazing. I use both the granular and powdered sugar products almost exclusively for my larger recipes on my primary blog, masonfit.com.
Their cake mix is made with coconut and almond flour, making it keto friendly as well as gluten and grain free. The rest of the recipe doesn’t follow those dietary guidelines, but you could easily modify the remaining ingredients if you’d like.
In addition to the cake mix, I used butter and whole milk to add some fat. You could use coconut oil or any other non-dairy fat source to replace the butter and a plant-based milk to make this recipe dairy free. And if you wanted to reduce the fat a bit further, you could use a fat replacement like canned pumpkin, unsweetened apple sauce, or mashed banana (beware of strong banana flavor).
My one-minute, 100-calorie brownie is a great example of using pumpkin and apple sauce with protein powder to make a fudgy brownie.
As for the protein powder, I used a whey protein. Feel free to plug and play with your choice of protein, but you may need to modify other ingredients for different textures/consistency of protein powder.
4-Ingredient Chocolate Protein Mug Cake

A quick and easy chocolate mug cake that's packed with 24 grams of protein.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 serving (37g) Swerve Chocolate Cake Mix
- 2/3 scoop (21g) PEScience Vanilla Protein Powder, or your choice of protein powder
- 1 Tbsp (14g) Light Butter, I used Land O'Lakes
- 1/4 C (60mL) Fairlife Whole Milk, or your choice of liquid
Instructions
- Mix everything together in a small bowl or mug and microwave for 75-90 seconds or until the center is mostly cooked. (I like to leave the center a bit gooey.)
- Top with fat free whipped cream, a scoop of lighter ice cream, or something like my chocolate frosting.
Notes
- Feel free to swap butter and milk for something like coconut oil and almond milk for dairy free.
- You could also use a lower calorie milk option to reduce the fat and calorie content even further.
Nutrition Information
Yield
1Serving Size
1 mug cakeAmount Per Serving Calories 272Total Fat 18gUnsaturated Fat 0gCarbohydrates 24gProtein 24g
If you try this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram!
Chris Welch
Friday 15th of February 2019
Chocolate mug cake was screaming at me for a week! I substituted Tera’s Whey Vanilla Bourbon as well as Califia Coconut Almondmilk. Then went rogue adding 1 tbsp semi sweet chocolate chips AND a 1/4 c Halo Top .. because ... #teacherlife. SO. GOOD. Thanks Mason!!
Katie Johnson
Friday 9th of November 2018
I make this on those nights when I want a dessert but I don’t want to make a huge batch of cookies or something. I tip them with 1/3 of a serving of masons protein frosting.