When I was a little girl, I remember playing in the kitchen for hours with my best friend that lived up the street- experimenting with different recipes and throwing ingredients together hoping for something to turn out edible.

Coming up with this recipe isn’t far from that memory I have from when I was a kid. One of my favorite pastimes is watching cooking shows and lately I’ve been into watching a nutrition & fitness blogger’s “what I eat in a day” videos on youtube. Random, I know! But she eats a whole food diet, comes from a place of female empowerment and is genuinely enjoyable to watch! We all have our favorite things, right? I often take a mental break from my day and watch one. It’s like a little treat.

But OK back to real treats and back to the point of this post! I saw her making a mug cake out of a few simple ingredients. I’ve seen these made before on cooking shows and social media but had never experimented for myself. I seemed to have all of the basic ingredients needed to make a recipe like this work, and ran into my kitchen to get to it!

What I came up with is such a simple and easy recipe that I have been addicted to for a weeks now! Since the base is protein powder and only a few other ingredients- I love whipping one up whenever I feel like it! When I want a snack or don’t know what to have for breakfast or lunch I make this :)

One of the best things? It only take 1 1/2 minutes to cook. WHAT!?

SCORE.

Feel free to mix and match ingredients, flavors and levels of sweetness. My protein powder is sweet on it’s own, but if your isn’t you can add 1 tsp. of your favorite natural sweetener. I recommend raw honey, organic 100% maple syrup or stevia.

Let me know if you make this and what you think! Simply comment below and let me know :)

Cacao Apple Protein Bowl Cake

dairy-free, gluten-free, paleo

Makes 1 individual serving

Ingredients:

2 heaping tbsp. Protein powder (avoid protein powders made of soy protein and/or with added sugars & artificial sugars)
1 tbsp. Cocao powder
1 tbsp. Coconut flour
1/4 tsp. Baking powder
1 egg
1 tbsp. applesauce (can sub for pumpkin puree)
2 1/2 tbsp. almond milk
1 tsp. honey, maple syrup, or sweetener of your choice if you’d like it to be sweeter- my protein powder is sweet on it’s on so I find I don’t need this but you may. (*optional)

Method:

Add the dry ingredients, protein powder, cacao, coconut flour and baking powder to a microwave-safe bowl. Mix everything together well with a fork.
Add the wet ingredients, egg, applesauce (or pumpkin) and almond milk to the dry mixture and mix together till everything is incorporated. You may want to grab a spatula to make sure all the dry ingredients are off of the bottom and sides of the bowl and well mixed into the batter. Using the spatula, flatten the batter till everything is even on one level.
Microwave for 1 minute. Then microwave for 30 more seconds. The inside of the cake may be more doughy/moist depending on the consistency of your protein powder. If this is the case, and you want it to be dryer, microwave for 15-30 seconds longer, but keep in mind the coconut flour will continue to dry out the cake if you overcook it.
Let the mixture cool before eating it. I love to remove it from the bowl using my spatula so I can eat it like a piece of cake on plate. But you can also enjoy it in the bowl, and with any of your favorite toppings! Ghee, coconut, nut butter, maple syrup or coconut butter icing (recipe below)!

Coconut Butter Icing

Ingredients:

1 1/2 tbsp. Coconut butter
almond milk as needed

Method:

Add the coconut butter to a small bowl and microwave for 15 seconds, remove, stir and melt for another 10-15 seconds (or as needed, this will depend on how hard or soft your coconut butter is at room temperature)
Remove from the microwave and add small splashes of almond milk, stirring after each addition, until you have a thick icing consistency.
Add the icing to the cake using the back of a spoon
Enjoy!!