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Short-Order Kitchen

Strawberry Lemon Mug Pound Cake

By Wes Ellis2 min read
A glazed strawberry loaf cake with fresh strawberries and cut slices on a wire cooling rack.
Recipe card
Servings
1
Prep
10 minutes
Cook
90 seconds
Method
Microwave
Difficulty
Easy
Jump to ingredients & directions ↓

Part 8 of the thread Microwave muffins and mug cakes

THE SHORT VERSION4 points
  • 1/2 cup of strawberries, chopped small, go right in the batter.
  • Just 1/4 teaspoon of lemon zest keeps the lemon in the background.
  • About 90 seconds, then the toothpick test.
  • Cake batter protein powder is the flavor to use here.
THE RECIPE · STRAWBERRY LEMON MUG POUND CAKE

Ingredients

Topping (optional)

You'll need

  • Microwave-safe mug or bowl
  • Zester or fine grater
  • Fork or small whisk

Directions

  1. Grease the mug. Stir the protein powder, pancake mix, milk, strawberries and lemon zest together until smooth.
  2. Microwave on high for about 90 seconds, until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.
  3. Let it cool slightly, then top with whipped cream and extra berries if you like.
Notes Best fresh or slightly warm, and it'll keep up to 2 days in the fridge; warm it for 15 to 20 seconds. Almond milk works if you want it lighter. Roughly 285 calories and 40 g protein per serving, give or take.

wesellis.com/blog/strawberry-lemon-pound-cake/

Let's be honest about the name first. This isn't a pound cake. There's no pound of butter anywhere near it, and it doesn't have that dense, tight crumb. What it does have is strawberry and lemon in a soft mug 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, and that combination is what people actually want out of a strawberry lemon pound cake.

Chop the berries small

Half a cup of strawberries is a lot of fruit for a mug this size, and a lot of water. Big pieces make wet pockets that stay raw-looking while the rest of the cake is done. Chopped small, they spread out through the batter and the center cooks evenly.

The lemon is deliberately quiet here. A quarter teaspoon of zestThe thin, colored outer layer of a citrus peel, grated off with a fine grater. It holds the fragrant oils, so it tastes more like lemon than the juice does. Stop before you hit the bitter white pith.More: Single-Serve Lemon Loaf just brightens the strawberries without taking over. If you want it more lemony, the Single-Serve Lemon Loaf is where the lemon gets to be the star.

Tip

If you're using frozen strawberries, chop them while they're still frozen. It's much cleaner, and they won't bleed all over the cutting board.

Make it dessert

Plain, it's a solid snack. With whipped cream and a few fresh berries on top, it's a pretty convincing dessert. For something closer to the classic, the Strawberry Shortcake for One splits and layers the cake, and the no-cook Strawberry Cheesecake Cup goes a different direction entirely.

Heads up

Top it right before eating. Whipped cream on a hot cake is soup in about a minute.

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