Raspberry Coffee Cake in a Mug

Coffee cake, in the old sense: cake you eat with coffee. There's no cinnamon streusel here, so don't go looking for it. What there is: a soft raspberry protein cake with whipped cream on top, built entirely from sugar-free pieces, which makes it a decent thing to have next to a mug in the afternoon.

Why the shallow dish

Most of the mug cakesmug cakeA single serving of cake batter cooked right in a mug or bowl in the microwave, usually in a minute or two. It won't brown like an oven cake, but it's done before you could preheat one.More: Protein Blueberry Muffins, Baked or Microwaved in this thread go in a mug. This one goes in a small, shallow dish, and that changes things. The batter spreads thin, the raspberries sit on a wide surface instead of sinking to the bottom, and you end up with something that looks more like a square of cake than a muffin.

It also changes the timing. Thin batter in a wide dish can behave very differently from microwave to microwave, so start checking early and go in short bursts. You want the center just set, with the top dry to the touch.

Heads up

Every sugar-free swap has its own quirks. Some sugar-free pancake mixes are thirstier than others, so if the batter's stiff as paste, add milk a teaspoon at a time.

What to drink with it

It's called coffee cake, so: coffee. The Protein Coffee post has a sugar cookie cold brewcold brewCoffee steeped in cold water for many hours instead of brewed hot. It comes out smoother and less bitter, and it's already cold, which makes it friendlier to protein powder.More: Protein Coffee: Sugar Cookie Cold Brew and PSL Cold Foam that goes nicely with it. If you like the raspberries and want something more layered, the Raspberry Shortcake for One is the dressed-up version, and the Blueberry Cobbler Mug Cake uses the same berries-on-top trick.

Tip

Frozen raspberries hold their shape better on top of the batter than fresh ones, which tend to collapse as they heat.