This Sugar Free Red Velvet Mug Cake is low carb, keto, made in under 3 minutes and perfect for two!
If you’ve been around my blog for a while, you know that I don’t post many cake recipes.
It’s not that I don’t like cake or enjoy cake, it’s just that…..it’s so much work to decorate it!
I’m not the most talented when it comes to frosting and decorating cake or even cupcakes. In fact I would even say I really stink at it. And so that is probably why I dread making cake recipes.
But this cake, well this cake is a whole different story my friends.
This cake has proven to me that even I can make a cake look pretty darn good without too much work or effort on my part.
Shhhhhhh!!! It’ a mug cake!!!
You know the ones, made in minutes in a mug right? Well this is just made slightly different in a quiche ramekin and made in 1 1/2 minutes for each in the microwave.
So why stack it and make it look like a layered cake?
For the hubby of course, it is Valentine’s time and to make him feel I went through all this trouble to make a mini cake for him for Valentine’s day to share just the two of us.
And it worked and he was impressed and after 18 years of marriage, impressing my man is quite hard to do. So I made a cake.
And if you are anything like me, you can make this cake effortlessly as well. Oh and did I mention it’s sugar free, gluten free, grain free and low carb too?
HA! How’s that for a “healthy and you wouldn’t know it” cake?!!
One requirement, I think it must be made with lots of Vanilla Cream Cheese frosting because that is how I roll with cakes, need the frosting or it’s not a cake to me.
SO I made this maybe 3 times with the cream cheese frosting to make sure it was nice and moist before posting and come to find out, hubby is more of the Butter-Cream frosting type like the one I made before Christmas with the sugarless sugar cookies.
So you certainly have the option to use either frosting, but my preference is the cream cheese one.
And if you don’t have a Valentine to share this cake with, enjoy it all for yourself.
Or maybe have just half one day and enjoy the rest the next day, you know so you don’t overindulge and all. 😉
What a difference just that 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder added to the color of the original right? My original recipe used 3 tbsp of coconut flour, but after hearing from comments regarding true red velvet should have cocoa powder, I adjusted the recipe.
Also these pictures are using my Butter Cream Frosting. The pictures are above use my Vanilla Cream Cheese frosting.
Two of my three kiddies liked the Buttercream frosting better as does the hubby. I prefer the cream cheese. Whichever you decide this won’t disappoint!
Brenda’s Notes:
- Nutritional Information does NOT include frosting.
- Choose either from my Sugar Free Vanilla Cream Cheese frosting or My Vanilla Sugar Free Butter cream frosting.
- You can choose to keep it cake separate in it’s own serving dish and frost just the top if you like.
- My ramekins were 7 ounce quiche style. They were more shallow and wider than typical ramekins.
- You may need to use more red food coloring as the cocoa powder does darken the cake. Natural red food coloring can be found at Whole Foods or online.
- This recipe was first published in February of 2015 and updated today with video!
Remember to subscribe to the Sugar Free Mom Newsletter for free and receive fresh recipe notifications delivered into your inbox!
If you try a recipe, please use the hashtag #sugarfreemom on instagram for a chance to be featured! Follow Sugar Free Mom on Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter for all of the latest content, recipes and updates.
Sugar-Free Red Velvet Couple's Mug Cake
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
- 2 tablespoons coconut flour
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla liquid stevia
- few drops red food coloring
Sugar Free ButterCream Frosting
- 4 tbsp butter softened
- 3 tbsp heavy cream
- 1/2 cup Swerve confectioners sweetener
Instructions
-
Whisk the first 5 ingredients together in a small bowl.
-
Whisk the rest of the ingredients together in another bowl.
-
Add the wet to the dry and stir until combined well.
-
Grease two 7 ounce quiche ramekins and spread batter evenly into both.
-
Cook one at a time, in microwave for 1 1/2 minutes each or Bake in a 325 F preheated oven for 15 minutes.
-
Cool then frost as desired.
Recipe Notes
Net Carbs: 2g
This looks so yummy! Can’t wait to try it, Brenda! Love your “new” look too!
Robin
Thank you Robin!
Is coconut flour gluten free? Thank you
Yes
I’d love to make this for a family birthday this weekend. What would the ingredients be in order to make a regular sized cake? Would all the ingredients go up by the same ratio? Thanks in advance for your reply!
I would think just upping the ingredients would be fine, I’ve not tried it though.
Thanks so much! Just made a sample one to see what it tastes like.. Haven’t tried it yet, but did try the butter cream frosting. Yummy!!
Think we’re going to try the sugar-free cream cheese with the full-sized cake though, since that’s what really makes a red velvet cake truly fantastic. I’ll keep the cream cheese recipe stashed away for another day. 🙂
What a pretty cake! And I love the new look here – beautiful!
Thank you! Just got re-deisgned this weekend!
What a great idea to make a mug cake in a ramekin. You did a fantastic job with decorating it!
This looks amazing like all your recipes! I can’t wait to try this!
What a great fun and easy dessert for valentines day! I love it!
You win! Again! Was fighting a serious doughnut craving this morning, decided to make this instead. I used chocolate stevia since it’s the only flavor of liquid stevia I had on hand. It’s seriously good. Topped with vanilla whipped cream made with Swerve powdered sweetener. So good! (Did I mention that already?) I cut into 6 pieces so while family could sample, and really, 1/6 is a nice serving, it’s so rich. Good work, & thanks for sharing. Definitely a keeper 🙂
WOW! You work fast! Love that you made it all ready and came back to share the results! Thank you!
Oh, my gosh! This is just fantastic, Love the look of your beautiful cake and your website. 🙂
this is so pretty and I love your cake plate
I have ask this before but no reply, can i sub the liquid stevia for a pkg of stevia with a touch of vanilla?
Help, and thank you!!!!!!!! 🙂
Thanks for all the wonderful recipes, love them!
Yes here’s my conversion chart: https://www.sugarfreemom.com/recipes/stevia-differences-in-liquid-packets-powdered-pure-a-stevia-conversion-chart/
I can’t believe this is a mug cake! This is a total showstopper of a dessert. Not to mention it’s really easy too. You totally hit this out of the park…love!
Thank you so much!
oh my gosh, I hardly recognized you site. It looks great!! And this is the most beautiful mug cake I’ve ever seen. So cute!
I don’t make a lot of cakes for the same reason – I’m not fond of the decorating part! You made it look so easy 🙂
I am glad not to be alone – cake decorating is not my forte.; I try the only ones that come out decent is ice cream cake for me.
Now your mug cake looks amazing and for me the only frosting is cream cheese 🙂
It looks wonderful! But doesn’t it need a little cocoa to taste like red velvet?
The first time I made it and twice after I used 2 tbsp or unsweetened cocoa but felt the chocolate flavor overpowered so I eliminated it. You can certainly add some.
wow oh wow! I could kiss you just about now. Instead, I’m sending you a huge virtual hug. My teen is on medically necessary low carb high fat diet. Her birthday is this month and this will be her birthday treat!! Thank you!
Woot Woot!! Yeah!! Hope she loves it!
I still have never made a mug cake, and I keep seeing them around – your version is so pretty! This is just perfect for two.
I made this today- the texture is light and perfect! I didn’t use flavored stevia so I will have to play around with extracts to up the flavor. I am thinking coconut extract and coating the frosted cake with dried unsweetened coconut!
I am going to classify this recipe as a (delicious) white cake in my book. I would love to add cocoa for a truer red velvet. You mentioned 2 T cocoa in an above comment- if one were to add that, would the original wet and dry ingredients remain the same?
I would only add 1 tbsp cocoa and reduce the coconut flour by 1 tbsp. Let me know if you try it before I make this again. I will experiment and see if I like it with the unsweet cocoa using just 1 tbsp.
Could I use almond flour instead of coconut. ( what I have in pantry)?
I can’t use almond flour because my youngest has a tree nut allergy. I can’t really say if almond flour and coconut flour are interchangeable in recipes since I don’t use it. Have you try subbing almond flour for coconut in other recipes and how did it work for you?
I had no idea that this was a mug cake when I was looking at the photos! I had no idea that a mug cake could be so pretty! I’m not very good at decorating cakes but I could totally make this one!
So pretty and I am sure your hubs was happy! Now you have to make him the icing he favors and just hand him a spoon!
I love red velvet so much. This time of year is my favourite because you see it everywhere. I dig that you made this as a mug cake. How flipping inventive, that rocks. I’m with you with decorating cakes. I stink at it so I would love to take a class. Wish we lived closer so we could go together. Apparently Wilton does them at Michaels. So I may sign up for one in spring. No point signing up now, I’d get snowed in every other day. lol
I love that you stacked these mini cakes to make your husband feel special. I’m sure it worked. These look amazing!
I don’t microwave – – what temperature and time in the oven would you recommend?
I can’t believer this is a mug cake! So beautiful and I have my fork ready right now.
My first thoughts when I saw this cake: What an amazing work of art!! Then I saw the VERY short list of ingredients and I’m just blown away!! I can’t believe you can make a layered cake like this one out of just a handful of things! Slow clap over here, Brenda 🙂
Hi Brenda! What does the heavy cream do? It is to make it richer. I want to make this dairy free…so could I use almond milk and add an extra egg?
I like it because it do feel it makes for a creamier texture. You could also sub coconut milk or even cashew milk, both are thicker than almond milk. Let me know how it goes.
Great! I will try it with coconut milk. I love red velvet…and eventually want to create a red velvet protein muffin. So I may sub cocoa powder with 1/2 tbsp of cocoa powder and 1/2 tbsp of chocolate protein powder.
Made this today…the cake was awesome! I flavored with blueberry stevia type flavoring since I couldn’t fine cherry vanilla. The butter cream tasted a tad off….perhaps my powdering of stevia was not a good choice? I ran out of erythritol and read I could powder stevia on a site. Maybe the lack of vanilla stevia liquid was to blame….all I had was un- flavored of that. But we enjoyed it and I will make it again! So nice to have a treat and still stay sugar free and low carb! Thanks!!
I made this on Saturday, had to substitute raspberry flavoring for the cherry vanilla but it was still yummy. Of course I frosted it and topped it with a few fresh raspberries. Thanks for the recipe.
My old fashioned red velvet cake recipe has 1 tsp,of vinegar. Do you know what would happen if I added that to this recipe? (I’m sooo not a scientific person! Lol!!)
I don’t have a microwave, what temperature and time would you do this in the oven? Thanks! Looks FABULOUS!!
I would suggest 350 for 10-15 minutes then check cake in the center.
What would the cooking time be if I used a 10 oz ramekin?
I would think at least 3 minutes but check in center with a toothpick.
I have a friend in the hospital and will be there on her birthday. She is diabetic and her favorite cake is red velvet. Was looking for a good sugar-free recipe . I thought about making cupcakes so that the staff could have one, too. Do you think that this recipe would translate into cupcakes? If so, what do you think the cooking time would be?
Thanks very much,,
Brenda
I’ve not tried doubling or making it into larger servings so i’d be guessing on that. You could try these vanilla coconut cupcakes and add some unsweetened cocoa powder and food coloring to make them red velvet.https://www.sugarfreemom.com/recipes/dairy-free-sugar-free-coconut-cream-cupcakes/
Thank you so very much for this, and all of your amazing recipes! It takes a great deal of time developing recipes, testing, photographing, and posting on a web site, on which you have obviously invested a phenomenal amount of time. I am humbled at your generosity. You surely have a beautiful heart! Thank you again, and be blessed!
I am wondering why the flaxseeds are used in this cake? I have a general dislike for seeds of any kind. And they seem out of place for a cake. Thank you!
It’s used to add fiber and bulk to recipes without grains.
Coconut flour has fiber. Can they be left out? Will this recipe work without them?
Thank you!
Carol
I can’t guess on it unless I were to try it I would really know how the texture will come out. If you do try without, please let me know.
is heavy cream fattening im very weight conscious but its my birthday coming up soon and I wanted to have a red velvet cake for it but I don’t wanna gain any weight is there another thing I could use to replace heavy cream or could I skip it ??
You can skip it, it has fat and therefore you can eat a small portion of cake and be completely satisfied that’s why I often use it. Try unsweetened almond milk if you’re concerned.
Is it okay to use flour in place of the ground flaxseed? I don’t have any of that.
Can’t wait to try this!
Thanks for posting,
Anna
I would suggest trying a ground nut instead to replace the flaxseed like almond meal.
I had stepped away from low carb a long time ago because I did not like the massive use of artificial sweeteners. I am so very thrilled to see recipes using stevia! I have not baked with it but will be buying it in flavors now and using it. Love the nut flours and coconut flours also. Beautiful recipe! Thank you!
thank you!
Wow, this looks so yummY!!! Just found this through Arman and Amanda’s round-up!
Brenda,
I am sooo glad I found your site. I have been on a low carb plan for over a year and like you, I made the conscious decision to eliminate sugary foods from my diet because of hormonal issues and adrenal issues. Your site is the site I’ve been looking for and has amazing recipes.
I made this low carb red velvet cake the other day and it tasted amazing!! I even served it to family and friends and they didn’t know I was virtually sugar free or low carb.
I am hooked! Thank you so much for sharing these recipes. Your website is a godsend to be able to follow a low carb, sugar free lifestyle for good.
Thank you!
Looks very pretty – I want to try it out this Valentine’s Day!! What are the pretty, pink, sugar-like sprinkles on top?
They are from Whole Foods and they are not sugar free but free from artificial colors and additives.
Ok, thanks. Going to try tonight…will use SF chocolate chips in place of pretty sugar 🙁
When you used the sugar-free buttercream frosting, did you use the full recipe on the cake? Thanks in advance. ?
No there was some left over, didn’t need it all.
I love this recipe! I can’t wait to try it! Thank you for such wonderful recipes. I was wondering if I could use red velvet emulsion instead of red food coloring? If you know, how much would I use?
My daughter in on the ketogenic diet her epilepsy and I love looking through your website for recipe ideas. I was excited to see the red velvet cake just in time for Valentine’s Day. Due to the exact nature of her diet I have to weigh all her food and put them in a special program, Ketogenic Calculator, which gives us her nutritional information. Many of the recipes I have used of yours are very close, but this recipe is WAY off. Even with including the frosting in the recipe, I can’t get it close to her ratio. I used the exact same ingredients and quantities, but even with frosting it came to 100 grams fat, 20 grams protein, and 19 grams carbs and this includes the frosting. How do you figure out your nutritional information?
Thanks!
The cake serves 4. Those amounts sound like it’s for the entire cake. My nutritional info is for 1/4th of the cake and does not include frosting.
What can I do to make these normal sized cupcakes?
With this recipe amount you’d probably only get 4- 6 cupcakes.
Hey! Looks very delicious. Moreover, it’s not too difficult to make so I will try soon. Thanks for your sharing!
Can chia seeds be used in place of flaxseed? I am new to this stuff and eager to try out this recipe; however, I don’t want my cake to be crunchy or “seedy.” Do you know how the texture would turn out with chia (it’s what I have on hand)?
In every recipe, rhe thirst few lines,I see that the serving is always 4. But in the description you can find that is different for example here is it 2. This is misleading
They are four servings and if sharing with another you each can have two pieces, one today, another tomorrow.