Kirbie's Cravings

Red Velvet Lava Mug Cake

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photo of a Red Velvet Lava Mug Cake
This single serving red velvet mug cake has a molten lava chocolate center. It’s a festive cake for the holidays that is ready in just a few minutes.

overhead photo of Red Velvet Lava Mug Cake
December is flying by and I still haven’t gotten my holiday cards done yet. My holiday cards take a long time. Every year, I do a custom design, with the front of the card being a grid of photos highlighting our year, so that our friends and family can see what we’ve been up to. It’s a long process because I actually go through a year’s worth of photos to select the dozen or so that will be included in the card.
photo of a Red Velvet Lava Mug Cake dusted with powdered sugar
Last year, after finishing the time-consuming project, I came up with the idea to create a folder on my computer entitled “Christmas Card 2015,” where I could add my favorite photos throughout the year, as potential photos to use for the card. It would save so much time and energy for my holiday cards. So I opened the folder the other day and there are two photos in there. Yup. I pretty much stopped filling the folder the month after I came up with the idea. So much for getting a head start.
photo of a spoon dipping into a lava cake
I always associate red velvet cakes with the holidays. It took me a long time to capture the essence of red velvet flavor in a single serving form, but last year, I was finally able to do so. This year, I decided to share my red velvet mug cake again, but added a melted chocolate center created with chocolate truffles. I love digging into my cake and finding all that oozing chocolate. If you aren’t a fan of melted chocolate centers (gasp!), then you can check out my original red velvet mug cake with cream cheese frosting here.

If you love lava cakes you might like my easy chocolate peanut butter lava cake, too.

Update! Recipe now includes video. You can check out all my recipe videos on my youtube channel as well.

red velvet lava mug cake

Red Velvet Lava Mug Cake

Servings: 1
Prep Time: 4 minutes
Cook Time: 1 minute
Total Time: 5 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
This single serving red velvet mug cake has a molten lava chocolate center. It's a festive cake for the holidays that is ready in just a few minutes.

Ingredients

  • 4 tbsp all purpose flour
  • 2 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 1/2 tbsp unsweetened dutch-processed cocoa powder
  • 1/8 tsp baking soda (see note)
  • 2 tbsp buttermilk (see note)
  • 1 tbsp fat free milk
  • 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1/8 tsp distilled vinegar
  • about 1/4 tsp red food coloring (see note)
  • 2 dark chocolate truffle balls or similar sized chocolate truffle pieces. You want something with a ganache center which then melts to form the lava

Instructions

  • Combine all cake ingredients except truffles into an oversized, wide, microwave-safe mug. I recommend using a wide and short mug over a tall mug for this recipe, otherwise you'll have to dig through a lot more cake to get to the lava center. Mix all ingredients with a small whisk until batter is completely smooth.
  • Press the chocolate truffle balls into the center of the cake batter. Scoop some of the batter on top so that chocolate balls are completely submerged under. Cook cake in microwave for about 55 seconds. Let cake cool a few moments before eating.

Notes

  • The video uses chocolate truffle hearts instead of truffle balls.
  • Please make sure you are as precise as possible. You'll note that you only use 1/8 tsp of baking soda and vinegar. This is a very small amount and estimating it and going over to 1/4 tsp will affect the recipe, causing it to rise too much and dry out.
  • Do not leave out buttermilk or vinegar. Buttermilk is key to the red velvet flavor and the acid reacts with the baking soda to make the cake rise. You will not taste the vinegar, but the vinegar also reacts with the baking soda and it also brings out the red hue in the cocoa powder.
  • Depending on the type or brand of food coloring you are using, you might need slightly more food coloring to get the shade of red you desire. You should be able to tell if you need more right when it's done mixing and it's okay to add a few more drops if needed.
 

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.

Did you make this recipe?I'd love to see it! Mention @KirbieCravings and tag #kirbiecravings!

 

If you enjoy mug cakes, check out my  5-Minute Mug Cakes cookbook which contains nearly 100 recipes!

Some of the product links contained in this post are affiliate links. Much like referral codes, this means I earn a small commission if you purchase a product I referred (at no extra charge to you).

Related Recipes

Check out my full mug cake recipe index here.

Cookie Butter Lava Mug Cake
cookie-butter-chocolate-mug-cake-31a

3 Ingredient Flourless Nutella Mug Cake
3-ingredient-flourless-nutella-mug-cake-23

4 Ingredient Molten Nutella Lava Mug Cake
nutella-lava-mug-cake-18

Brownie Mug Cake
brownie-mug-cake-10-2

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Recipe Rating




4 comments on “Red Velvet Lava Mug Cake”

  1. hey i live ryk and there are barely any other ingredients here. so can you please reccommed me something simple like cooking chocalate or a chocalate bar like dairy milk like something with not too stronng chocalte bitter taste

    • We’ve only tested the recipe with the chocolate ganache truffle. The ganache is what creates the molten chocolate center, so if you can find a similar dairy milk chocolate that will probably work, too.

  2. Im having issues with my mug cake, i only have 800watts microwave, and the cake didn’t rise up the mug. my baking powder is new, so i don’t know what happened. cookied it for 2 mins. I used the funfetti recipe in your book.

    • hi, sorry to hear you are having issues. Did you cake rise at all? if you are using a larger mug, the cake won’t rise all the way to the top, but it should rise some while cooking. Can you tell me the end result? Also did you do any substitutions of ingredients at all?