Best Oreo Mug Cake Recipe

It's not easy out there for those single-serving dessert seekers. When a sugar craving strikes and you start your search for the perfect cake, cookie, or brownie recipe, you're often inundated with a plethora of recipes that look delicious but ultimately yield enough servings to feed a small crowd. While there's nothing wrong with having leftover dessert, sometimes it's best to make just enough to satisfy your sweet tooth and nothing more — and that's exactly what this Oreo mug cake from recipe developer Patterson Watkins will do.

"There's nothing like an easy-peasy, single-serving dessert," Watkins says, noting that this one is the "perfect sweet solution for those times when you just need a little treat-yourself moment." And, no, this isn't one of those half-hearted recipes that calls for heating up Oreo cookies and milk and calling it a day. Instead, you'll be making a full-fledged cake — one with flour and sugar and baking powder — but in mini form and at lightning speed thanks to the microwave. You'll even top off your chocolaty Oreo cake with cookies and cream frosting, if that doesn't scream single-serve sweetness, then we don't know what does.

As you might have guessed, you will need some Oreos to make both the mug cake and the frosting. Other cake ingredients include all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking powder, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. 

When it comes to the frosting, you don't need to worry about making that from scratch. Canned buttercream frosting will work just fine, along with those additional Oreos and a little bit of milk.

You'll need a large (at least 12 ounces), microwave-safe mug to get started, so grab your trustiest one and add in the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Stir to form a cake batter, then stir the crushed Oreos into the mix. 

Now, pop your creation into the microwave and zap it for about 1 minute and 30 seconds, or until the cake is cooked through. "A microwave is a must-have," Watkins says. "Just be on standby while cooking; depending on the power of your microwave, there may be some batter overflow." Once you've got a perfectly cooked mug cake, set it aside to cool down a bit.

While your mug cake cools, turn your attention to the frosting. First, place the remaining crushed Oreos (well, reserve a little bit for garnishing) into a bowl with the milk and let that sit for about 5 minutes. Then, add the buttercream frosting to a mixing bowl along with the softened cookies, and stir to combine. If you aren't quite ready to garnish your cake, refrigerate the frosting until you're ready to use it.

You can pipe the cookies and cream frosting onto your mug cake if you want to get fancy with it, or you can simply spoon it right on top. If you reserved some crushed Oreos, sprinkle those on top, and voila — your single-serve cake is ready to go. "Late night or after dinner is my go-to time for enjoying this mug cake," Watkins says, though she does note that you can nosh on it just about whenever: "Cake for breakfast? Why not!"

No cake is complete without a good beverage on the side, and Watkins has some suggestions there as well. "An icy cold glass of milk (you know, that whole milk and cookies bit) would wash this down perfectly," she says, though she also has some more adult-leaning options. "For a fancy boozy beverage pairing, I could see a glass of port, sherry, or dessert wine being absolutely stunning as well."