This single serving cheesecake is made in a mug and cooks in the microwave. It only takes about ten minutes to prep and cook!
I love how cute it turned out!
I don’t usually ever have an entire cheesecake in the house and I rarely make it. My brothers and Mr. K used to always ask for it and then it was like pulling teeth to get them to finish it once I did. And I can never eat more than one slice.
That is why this one serving treat is so perfect.
The texture isn’t exactly the same as a traditional baked cheesecake. It’s close, but the microwave version doesn’t come out as creamy as the baked version. But it tastes like cheesecake and it was delicious.
The one thing is, just like a regular baked cheesecake, you need to let this cool. I’m so used to eating a mug cake right after it comes out of the microwave, but this is cheese and when cheese is warm, well, it doesn’t really taste like cheesecake. It tastes like warm, sweetened cheese, and it’s a little oily. So definitely give this time to cool in the fridge. I let mine cool for an hour.
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Microwave Cheesecake Mug Cake
Ingredients
for the cheesecake
- 4 tbsp cream cheese softened (or cream cheese spread)
- 2 tbsp plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 2 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 large egg whisked
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
for the crust
- 4 tbsp graham cracker crumbs place graham crackers through food processor to get fine crumbs
- 1 tbsp melted butter
Instructions
- Grease the inside of a microwave-safe mug (both interior sides and bottom). Add graham cracker crumbs and melted butter and mix until butter is completely mixed into the crumbs. Press down on the crumbs with your fingers to form a crust at bottom of mug. You want the crumbs to be tightly pressed together, so make sure to apply some pressure.
- In a medium bowl, add egg, cream cheese, yogurt, sugar and vanilla. Using a small whisk, mix until batter is smooth. There may still be tiny lumps of cream cheese left depending on if you used regular cream cheese or cream cheese spread, but you want to get them as small as possible. Pour batter into mug.
- Cover top of mug with a paper towel and microwave for 1 minute at full power. Mug cake should be mostly cooked except center. Pause to check on it, then microwave for another 20 seconds. Stop again, and microwave for another 20 seconds. Then microwave for one final round of 20 seconds. Cake should be completely cooked. You don't want to microwave the entire amount at once because the batter may overheat and splatter.
- If you have greased your mug, the cheesecake should have pulled away from the sides of the mug. Gently slide cheesecake out of the mug. I let it come out upside down onto a big spatula and then flipped it back over onto a plate. Let cool cake at room temperature for a few minutes. Place in fridge to cool and set for at least 1 hour. Please let cheesecake cool and set before eating. It will not taste like cheesecake if you try to eat it right away.
Notes
- Choose a microwave safe mug that is wide enough fto place your hand inside so that you can press and shape your crust. I find it is easier to form the graham cracker crust with your fingers rather than utensils.
- Cream cheese spread is easier to whisk than regular cream cheese, though your cheesecake won't be quite as rich as using regular cream cheese since the spread is whipped with air. Both are easier to whisk if you soften the cream cheese first.
- It's okay to have very tiny lumps of cream cheese left in your batter, but you want to eliminate as many as possible before cooking.
- Much like traditional cheesecake, it needs time to set to allow the cheese flavor to full develop. If you try to eat it right away, the cake will be a little bland and eggy. I find it's best to let it set in the fridge for about 1 hour.
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
Recipe Tips
- Choose a microwave safe mug that is wide enough fto place your hand inside so that you can press and shape your crust. I find it is easier to form the graham cracker crust with your fingers rather than utensils.
- Cream cheese spread is easier to whisk than regular cream cheese, though your cheesecake won’t be quite as rich as using regular cream cheese since the spread is whipped with air. Both are easier to whisk if you soften the cream cheese first.
- It’s okay to have very tiny lumps of cream cheese left in your batter, but you want to eliminate as many as possible before cooking.
- Much like traditional cheesecake, it needs time to set to allow the cheese flavor to full develop. If you try to eat it right away, the cake will be a little bland and eggy. I find it’s best to let it set in the fridge for about 1 hour.
OMG This RECIPE IS AMAZING. It came out perfect. Truly wild you can make a good cheesecake in a mug. Thank you for the recipe !!!
We’re so glad you love it!
So as other comments stated, it did split. But I also read it needed to be fully emulsified which it wasn’t. I won’t lie, even split it was still quite tasty! I’ll try again.
We’re glad you liked it! Let us know how it goes when you remake it.
Just made it, yum!
So happy you enjoyed it!
It looks wondeful. But I’m not good with the micro do u have one in the oven please
Thank you for All your wonderful receipies
I love them and you .I need to keep my sugar and wrist down and they help.
God bless you and I your team xx
Sorry, but we don’t have a single-serving cheesecake for the oven. We’re glad you’re enjoying the recipes!
Sorry, Kirbie. The recipe said one egg, and I didn’t have a whisk so i used a fork, but when i microwaved it, it was like cheesecake bits in egg. I put chocolate chips on it, so it was edible, but i would not make again.
It sounds like the cream cheese was not fully incorporated with the egg. Softened cream cheese and a whisk makes it easier to do this so that might have been the issue.
This turned out pretty great! I don’t know what’s wrong, but my cream cheese and egg didn’t really emulsify the way it did in the video, so it turned out kind of scrambled egg like even after refrigerating for an hour. Otherwise, the flavor was great and it was super easy! Thanks Kirbie!
The cream cheese should be soft when you mix it with the egg. That way they fully combine and make a smooth batter. It sounds like maybe they weren’t mixed well before you cooked it? Hope this helps!
How could you make this into a chocolate version? Tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa?
yes I think that would work
Great and easy . I used sour cream to replace yogurt and raspberry emulsion instead of vanilla extract. My crust stuck to the mug; I greased with butter but the next time I will use cooking spray. Good and satisfying for an individual!
I’m glad it worked out for you!
This is so wonderful. Kirbie your recipes are the best. Could I make this with less sugar? I didn’t read the bit about putting in fridge for an hour before eating and not sure could wait. It tasted like cheesy custard with a delicious graham cracker crust. Thank you for your recipes.
yes you can reduce the sugar
I was very hopeful for this recipe, as I needed cheesecake soo bad and I do not have oven in my place. Unfortunately, turned out awful. I had to cook it longer, because after the time given it was still liquidy. When it looked baked on top, I took it off and… had to pour out nearly half of a mug of watery mixture (smelled like vanilla though). I did not give up and left in in a fridge for more than an hour. Poured a little bit of water again, tasted and … had to throw it out. It was awful in taste. Maybe it is because of my microwave, maybe cheese I had, maybe yogurt, maybe too much egg, I have no idea.
I’m not quite sure where it went wrong. I am wondering if you mixed everything enough to begin with. The liquid may be because your ingredients separated.
I made this today, the first cheesecake I’ve ever made – and it came out fantastic. Thanks for sharing this
A couple of modifications I made were 1) I used lactose-free 15% sour cream instead of Greek yogurt (just because I had it in the fridge and needed to use it), and 2) I added 1/2 tbsp flour to the batter, to avoid the problems with liquid that some people have. I got the latter tip from a couple of other recipes.
I drizzled a homemade blueberry sauce over it, and it was better than any of the cheesecakes I had in New York.
I’m glad you got it to work for you! Wow better than cheesecakes in NY–that’s such a wonderful compliment.
This is very good! I did think maybe it was a bit eggy, but i love cheesecake and this is a great representation!
If you let it sit a little longer, the egginess should disappear
Hey Kirbie this was amazing and easy even for a kid to make because mine was perfect and I am only 11. Instead of regular Greek yogurt I used strawberry Greek and it was delicious but with the vinalla it made it brown but I would do this again
thanks for sharing your experience! I’m so glad you liked it!
Ended up curdling/separating a bit in the microwave(had almost a stringy pattern to it on top) did this happen for anyone else and how do i avoid that?
I have not had this happen but I am guessing that perhaps the batter wasn’t mixed enough
Any crust ideas? Don’t have graham crackers!
I believe one of the readers made a crust with cornflakes.
Crushed oreo cookies for the crust
I made it using cream cheese and ricotta and used a sugar replacement (1 tbsp Truvia for baking) and added a piece of crumbled dark chocolate, because I did not pay attention and read further, it almost cooked for 10 minutes! so, It was not creamy but more cakey, it was still edible. Next time I will cook as instructed.
I hope your next attempt is even better!
Just made this but with some variations.
Crust: cornflakes and freeze dried strawberries in the food processor before mixing with melted butter
Filling: added a tbsp of cocoa to try to get a chocolate & strawberry thing going with the crust.
Took a while longer to cook through but I have a low wattage microwave. Currently chilling and can’t wait to try it later!
I hope you enjoyed!
I just made this without the Greek yogurt/sour cream (mainly because I didn’t have any) the texture was a bit eggy but I added in more sugar to make the egg taste, it’s pretty good! Helps satisfy the cheesecake craving haha
so glad you enjoyed it!
Can this be made without the egg? Is there a way to modify it if that isn’t the case?
I have not made an eggless version yet. Sorry!
Just made this and it turned out wonderful! this is my second time (the first time was the best) and i would continue to make it. But do you know how many calories this equals up to?
I do not have that information, but I recommend caloriecount website. They have a tool that allows you to input a recipe and it’ll compute all the nutritional information. Hope that helps!
This was pretty good, but a bit bland. The blandness my be partially my own fault – I cooked the cheesecake for an extra ten seconds in the microwave, which caused it to crack and may have affected it in other ways. I heated it for a longer time because I wasn’t totally convinced at 2 minutes that it was done, and when it came out after 2 minutes and after 2 minutes 10 seconds, it had a very strong eggy smell. It looked very cute, though, and flipped out pretty well – only a bit of the crust stuck on to the greased mug. Adding some strawberry and Fat Free ReddiWip helped a lot with adding sweetness, but I think the crust could also have used some extra sweetness. The texture was fine. It did not taste too eggy, despite smelly very eggy when it first came out of the microwave.
I’m glad you got it work out. There are definitely limitations with a microwave recipe. It can’t really have all the complex flavors of a traditional cheesecake because you’d have to use more ingredients, mixing with a mixer, etc. But I think it works as a quick fix and, yes, adding some toppings and sauces helps make it better too!
Made this tonight for my family of 4. Quadrupled the ingredients, but only used 3 eggs. Used 1/2 cup mixture per mug. Placed all 4 mugs in the microwave and it took 5 minutes. Didn’t bother unmolding them. Chilled in the freezer while we ate dinner. It was the perfect amount to enjoy after dinner. Delicious! For the crust I used the recipe in the back of the container of graham cracker crumbs.
that is so awesome! so glad you enjoyed it!
this turned out amazing!!!! ahhh im so so happy. usually i’m super skeptic with these mug cake recipes because they always come out dry and slightly rubbery and just not like how they look in pictures. but with this one i was pleasantly satisfied :))) i added a wedge of lime juice since i prefer a slightly tart cheesecake and i only used half a large egg b/c i wasn’t sure if it’d be too much. definitely could have used the whole egg for a more firm consistency but nonetheless it was nice and creamy. i bit looser than a regular cheesecake but it didn’t have neither a uncooked or rubbery texture/taste. five stars im in love!!! thanks so much for sharing 🙂
yay!! so glad you enjoyed it and thank you for taking the time to let me know!
Made it with ricotta and yogurt. Makes more than a mugful. Texture is rubbery, edges and surface break. Weeps out a lot of liquid. Use half the vanilla, and don’t make it with crust. I suggest making it in a shallow bowl and transferring it after it’s cooled a few minutes to help it cool down and stop cooking, and so you can drain it. Then make crust and slide drained custard into the crust pan.
some of the issues you experienced may be because you used ricotta.
It was easy and simple
Tasted delicious
And I should say the this was the first microwave recipe that worked for me
So thanks allot
that’s so awesome to hear!
I don’t have much time on workdays, so this is a perfect dessert for me. Definitely going to try this out soon. 🙂 The pictures are so good!
hope you enjoy!
Hey, Kirbie, thanks for posting so much info in the blog and being so responsive in the comments. I’ve been making homemade cheesecakes from scratch for years (something of a specialty of mine), so the ingredients part wasn’t where I needed help. i was going to try out some mini-cheesecakes (in muffin tins, not mugs but I like that indivual serving idea–a lot!) I got the batter all mixed up and THAT was when I discovered I had no way to cook them.
I’m staying with a friend (a guy) who bought a house and its furnishings from an estate sale and the oven has recently decided not to work correctly – without warning. We have to flip the circuit breaker to cut power or else it seems to go on and just stay on. Baking in self-clean mode (or broiling) isn’t really feasible so I was trying to figure out how to use his circa-1972 microwave to cook these mini-cheesecakes and Googled a bit and came to your blog. Fantastic.
I used a silicone muffin pan so it could go from microwave to (broiling) oven and your directions as a guide for how to nuke ’em. Worked great to zap the 6-cup pan for about 3:30 rotating half way then jiggling to see if the batter was set. It was not so I used your tip to keep zapping another 20-30 seconds (covered in anticipation of explosions *grin*) and then after I was fairly sure they were set, I slid the pan onto a cookie sheet and ran it through this whacko oven for about 2 minutes to brown the edges golden tan and melt the mini-chocolate chips I’d topped them off with for fun. The silicone pans have a tendency to cool quickly so I only had to wait a few minutes before covering with a bit of plastic wrap and slipping them into the fridge.
Next time, when I’m back in my own home with functioning 21st century equipment, I look forward to trying out your mug idea. Gonna have to rummage your blog for an apple crisp mug cake now. Apple pies and crisps are my other favorite (and specialty) but like you, I cannot eat a whole one alone and there are only so many occasions in one’s life where one can “bring a dessert” and get a slice for oneself 🙂
I’m glad you were able to make some mini ones in the silicone. And yes, I hope you give the mug cake version a try. Unfortunately, I don’t have an apple crisp mug cake yet. I really should…But I do have a bazillion other mug cakes for you to try.
I am a 10 year old who made this and it is amazing at first when I took it out of the mug it was watery but I let it sit and that was all it, needed
wow, what great feedback for this recipe, thank you!
I made and am 11 and it was perfect but I used strawberry Greek yogurt and it turned out amazing…I wonder how these grown people mess up
when do u add the cheese mix ? Before or after baking?
step 2 in the directions
Hi! Can I use flavored cream cheese . I have honey and pecan cream spreadable cream cheese 😀
that should be fine!
i used sour cream and cream cheese, and mine, too, was a bubbling, eggy mess. i’m not sure what happened, but it looks and tastes gross. there was a lot of clear liquid around it even after i cooked it as directed.
it’s hard for me to figure out what went wrong without being there to watch you make it. I can tell you I’ve made this dozens of times and had friends make it without any issue. My only thought is that you may be measuring the ingredients wrong? You do need to be as exact as possible. For instance, you need to level off your tbsp so you don’t have too much cheese or cream. This is very similar to a regular cheesecake in terms of ingredients–it’s just smaller. So just like a full cheesecake, it should cook and solidify.
I don’t know what’s wrong with mine…. 🙁 I tried microwaving it for several extra 20 second intervals, but all it did was bubble and it never cooked…
did you use greek yogurt or sour cream? it sounds like your batter is too liquidy which can happen if you tried to use regular yogurt, or if you used reduced fat cream cheese, or if you may have not been extremely precise with your measurements
Wow! Amazing!!! For a more creamier consistency, use even parts of yoghurt and cream cheese (3 tbsp yoghurt & 3 tbsp cream cheese).
ill try that out next time!
Can you make this without the crust? I have all the ingredients minus the crackers. Thanks!
yes!
I think it might be creamier with half an egg. I am excited to try this recipe. Thanks!
You can definitely play around. I found that 1/2 egg didn’t work for me.
Just made this! I used only the egg white and 2 tbsp sugar, and added 1/2 tsp lemon juice and 1 tsp flour in the filling, inspired by a cheesecake recipe I’ve been making during the years. I used a digestive biscuit crust and topped with fresh cherry jam. Absolutely delicious! The texture wasn’t like a classic cheesecake, but as far as taste’s concerned I’m more than satisfied ;D Thanks for sharing!
awesome! you’re definitely right– the texture is not classic baked cheesecake but the taste is there
Is it possible to double the ingridients and make it in a bigger wider mug?
hmm, i’m not sure. normally for my mug cakes, you can def double it, but the cheesecake one is a little different, so I’m not sure what will happen if you try to double it.
Great cake.
My brother makes his cheese cakes in the oven with a pan of water on the bottom rack to create a steam oven effect, to get it more creamier moist, so I’m a try this today and before I add the cheesecake will get a mug of water boiling in the microwave first then add the cheesecake mug in the microwave to cook with the boiling hot water, to see if can get that better texture your talking about
let me know how it goes!
Hi, how many watts was the microwave you used? Thanks.
1000 watts
Hi Kirby, this recipe looks REALLY good, but I don’t have Greek yogurt or sour cream! Is there anything I can substitute for that?
sorry, no, Idont know of anything else you can substitute for
I was hoping to make this in my Life Skills to teach my students a little about cooking. Could putting the mugs in an ice bath and refrigerating them for 20 minutes give it enough time to firm? We only have a 45 minute class so we don’t really have an hour to let it cool…
if you only have a limited amount of time, I’d recommend sticking them directly in the freezer. the texture wont be as ideal as if you let it sit in the fridge for an hour, but it should still be pretty good.
I’ve tried out this recipe but the eggy taste is really too strong, other thatn that, the taste is really good, is it ok if I change one egg to 1/2 egg?
hmm, i havent had any issues with it being eggy. of course you can try to reduce the egg and see what happens
I tried this recipe and loved it. I’ve made it 2 times in the last 3 days for my family, because they begged for it again after making it the first time. I followed the recipe perfectly the first time and it tasted great. The second time I decided to play around a bit by adding just a pinch of salt and putting the ingredients in a food processor which added a pleasant texture. I would have never thought making it would be so easy! I’m so happy I stumbled onto your blog 🙂
Yay! So glad your family likes the recipe. I agree the food processor will have a very nice texture.
hi there! this is the best cheesecake ive ever made. i used strawberry yogurt bcs i cant find any sour cream. the taste was amazing! but im facing a problem which when i substitute the sour cream to a plain yogurt, the texture is too wet even after refrigerate it for a night. why?
are you using greek yogurt? it has to be greek and not regular because the regular yogurt’s consistency is too thin. also some brands of greek yogurt are also watery. sour cream is the best option but a thick greek yogurt should work too
Um, what? Blog twin, you are a genius – I need to try this ASAP.
Yes give it a try! I’m going to fiddle with it a little more once I get more cream cheese, but this was pretty good.
Amazing! It worked out perfectly for me. I just did it a little differently: I only baked the filling and crumbled a few graham cracker pieces in top after baking. Then I just ate it out with a spoon, it was really good!
glad you liked it!
Maybe try ricotta instead of cream cheese – I use it in my baked cheesecake and it gives a different texture.
Hmm, thanks for the suggestion. I will give it a try.
Single serving cheesecake (that doesn’t take hours to bake) sounds perfect!
Not I just need to solve being able to dig in right away and not waiting for it to cool. Maybe liquid nitrogen, hehe.
What if you put the crust on top so that you could easily flip it out?
I agree that would make it easier to flip out. I’m not sure how well it will cook though with the crust on top and also the crust might not become firm enough if it’s not weighted during the cooking process. It’s actually pretty easy to flip over if you bake it with the crust on the bottom because the cake slides out really easily.
It looks delicious!
it was pretty good!