• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Free Email Series!

5 Time and Stress Saving Cooking Secrets

Free email series of my best tips!

Visit my other Site: Pancake Recipes
  • About
  • Contact
  • Free Email Series!

    5 Time and Stress Saving Cooking Secrets

    Free email series of my best tips!

  • Visit my other Site: Pancake Recipes

Rachel Cooks®

Food, Family, Fun

  • Recipe Index
  • Popular
    • Instant Pot Pinto Beans
    • Green Beans with Bacon
    • Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes
    • Roasted Sugar Snap Peas
    • Beef Stew Seasoning
    • Chili Seasoning Recipe
    • Thousand Island Dressing
    • Poppy Seed Dressing
    • Copycat Panera Squash Soup
    • Chocolate Chip Blondies
    • Instant Pot Pork Loin Roast
    • Frosé
    • Best Chocolate Cake
    • Dill Vegetable Dip
    • Instant Pot Jasmine Rice
    • Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs
  • Learn to Cook
    • Crostini
    • Delicata Squash
    • Butternut Squash
    • Kabocha Squash
    • Spaghetti Squash
    • Guacamole
    • Croutons
    • Snap Peas
    • Baked Potatoes
    • Baked Bacon
    • Balsamic Glaze
    • Whipped Cream
    • Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
    • Simple Syrup
    • Pickled Red Onions Recipe
    • Toasted Pine Nuts
    • Roasted bone-in Chicken Breasts
    • Poached Chicken
    • Roasted Whole Chicken
    • Easy Cheese Sauce

Dinner Made Easy:

Slow Cooker

5 Ingredients

Grilling

Make Ahead

Sheet Pan

Tacos

Pizza

Home Recipes by Type Appetizers/Snacks
GF Gluten-Free

Meyer Lemon Mug Cake – Low Carb & Gluten Free

4.59
/5
5 mins
115 Comments
Jump to Recipe
By: Rachel GurkPosted: 03/01/2013Updated: 06/15/2021

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.

Perfect for everyone, this low carb and gluten-free Meyer lemon mug cake can be ready to eat in just ten minutes!

I’m bringing you all something a little different today! Carolyn from All Day I Dream About Food is here to share a gluten-free goodie. When I was asking for guest posts, Carolyn asked if I was okay with a low-carb recipe. I said yes! I love providing my readers with new ideas and recipes that they don’t usually see here. So whether you’re looking to change your lifestyle, planning to cook for someone else, or just wanting to try something new, I think this easy Meyer Lemon Mug Cake is the perfect place to start! 

Make sure to check out Carolyn’s site, you’ll find great things such as her Homemade Gummy Fruit Snacks, Low Carb Brownie Cheesecake, and Brie, Ham and Green Apple Panini. 

~~~~~~~

Low Carb Meyer Lemon Mug Caek

Hello, lovely Rachel Cooks fans. I have to confess, I wonder what you think, coming to Rachel’s blog and seeing a low carb, gluten-free recipe with a few odd-sounding ingredients. I always wonder, when someone asks me to guest post for them, what their readers will think of my recipes. Will they think Rachel is crazy for inviting me? Like, who is this chick and why does she think I want to even look at a low carb, gluten-free dessert recipe? Where are the yummy regular recipes for us normal readers!??!

If you are thinking such a thing, I get it. I swear I do. But give me a few moments of your time, if you don’t mind, and I hope I can convince you that this dessert, along with many of my others, is worth a try.

See, here’s the deal. I like to say that I didn’t choose the low carb lifestyle, it chose me. In the form of pre-diabetes, a somewhat shocking diagnosis for a petite, fit and healthy woman. Whatever, no use crying over the proverbial spilled milk. Although I did for bit. I did cry, because as a die-hard baker, I thought my baking days were over. The more research I did, the more I became convinced that I had to go low carb for my health and I thought that relegated me to bacon and eggs and lots of salad for the rest of my life. I love bacon and eggs and salad, but I also love cake and cookies and muffins and scones, like this lemon mug cake.

Low Carb Meyer Lemon Mug Cake

I love food in general, and my blog is aptly named All Day I Dream About Food. Because I really do dream about it all day, and sometimes I dream about it at night too. Food rocks. Food makes the world go round. Food is community, heritage, love, family, friends, creativity and history, all bound up together in one little bite. Do I put a lot of expectations on my food? You bet I do!

So you can imagine how crushed I was to discover I had to limit my carb intake, and hence my food options. On the flip side of that, you can imagine how delighted I was to discover that all was not lost, that there were so many wonderful options still available to me, with a little ingenuity. It’s astonishing what you can do with a bag of almond flour, a stick of butter, and a willingness to experiment.

So, for those of you unfamiliar with low carb, gluten-free baking, I thought I’d go easy on you a bit and whip up a very simple recipe that you could easily recreate in your own home in about 10 minutes flat. Mug Cake is delightful in the fact that you throw some ingredients together, pop it in the microwave, and about a minute and half later, you have a tasty treat. And Meyer Lemons give lemon mug cake a light, airy, spring-like feel. It’s not light and airy, though. This mug cake is rich and satisfying and a touch on the decadent side. And shockingly good for you!

Gluten Free Meyer Lemon Mug Cake

And the ingredients aren’t completely foreign, I promise. Almond flour is just finely-ground, blanched almonds (you can usually pick some up at your local grocery store) and erythritol, my favourite sweetener, is sold in most stores as ZSweet or Truvia. And it’s not some man-made chemical, in case you are leery of that. It’s actually a naturally-occurring substance found in fruits and other fermented foods.

I hope I’ve convinced you to give me and my crazy low carb recipes a chance! And many thanks to dear Rachel for having me over to share this Meyer Lemon Mug Cake.

Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me @rachelcooksblog on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!

Recipe

Get the Recipe: Meyer Lemon Mug Cake

4.59 from 29 votes
Prep Time: 3 mins
Cook Time: 2 mins
Total Time: 5 mins
2 servings
Print Rate Recipe
Prevent your screen from going dark
You’d never guess that this lemon mug cake was low carb and gluten-free! It’s 100% delicious.

Ingredients

  • ¾ cup almond flour
  • 2 tablespoons erythritol
  • Zest of one Meyer lemon
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • Pinch salt
  • Juice of one Meyer lemon
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 large egg, lightly beaten
  • Lightly sweetened whipped cream for garnish

Instructions

  • In a medium bowl, whisk almond flour, erythritol, lemon zest, baking powder and salt.
  • Add lemon juice, melted butter and egg, and stir until well combined.
  • Divide mixture between two microwave-safe mugs and microwave each separately for 1 minute and 20 seconds.
  • Remove and top with whipped cream.

Notes

  • Substitute regular lemon, clementine, orange, lime, or other citrus.

Nutrition Information

Serving: 1mug, Calories: 483kcal, Carbohydrates: 35g, Protein: 13g, Fat: 36g, Saturated Fat: 10g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 24g, Cholesterol: 126mg, Sodium: 430mg, Fiber: 8g, Sugar: 19g

This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.

© Author: Rachel Gurk
Did You Make This?Be sure to upload a photo & tag me at @RachelCooksBlog. I love seeing what you made!
Share A Photo! Tag on Insta Rate It

 

Free email series

5 Time & Stress Saving Cooking Secrets

Free email series of my best tips!

FREE BONUS!

You May Also Like...

  • Meyer Lemon Parfaits
  • Bacon Guacamole Appetizer - get the EASY recipe on RachelCooks.com
    Bacon Guacamole Appetizer (low-carb!)
  • Crackers are so easy to make at home! You will love the sweet and savory flavor of this gluten-free cracker recipe, and it's great for kids too! You can even have them help roll out the crackers. Get the gluten-free snack recipe on RachelCooks.com!
    Gluten-Free Cracker Recipe - Sweet Potato and Rosemary
  • Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Bars
Two skewers with grilled chicken along with salad on square white plate.
Previous Post
Shish Tawook – Lebanese Marinated Chicken (VIDEO)
Closeup of squash soup in white bowl with spoon inserted.
Next Post
Shortcut Squash Soup {less than 20 minutes!}

Reader Interactions

Leave a Review Cancel reply

Recipe Rating




The maximum upload file size: 1 MB. You can upload: image. Drop files here

  1. Bonnie says

    April 2, 2022 at 8:07 pm

    What does that mean?

    Reply
  2. Bonnie says

    April 2, 2022 at 8:04 pm

    I loved the cake. I think I overcooked it though. At the beginning of the recipe it says cook time 2 minutes and later in the recipes it says microwave for 1mi and 20 seconds. Or 80 seconds right, which is it? Also should I have used confectionary or granular sweetener. Or does it matter? I added a lot of blueberries on top and some pure whipping cream on top ate it in a bowl.. it was great. But I would like to eat in cake form with whipped cream. Thanks

    Bonnie

    Reply
    • Rachel Gurk says

      April 8, 2022 at 11:46 am

      I’m glad you enjoyed it!

      Reply
  3. Annalisa says

    December 20, 2020 at 2:09 pm

    Made this for breakfast. Loved the lemony flavor even though i couldnt find meyer lemons, regular lemons were tasty.

    I didnt love the texture, but that’s just me. I cant seem to fall in love with nut flours. It definitely needes the whipped cream to help me fight the texture issue. Thank you for a great recipe despite my personal battle with alternative flours.

    Reply
    • Rachel Gurk says

      December 21, 2020 at 1:50 pm

      Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!

      Reply
  4. Connie says

    June 13, 2020 at 11:22 pm

    Can you use stevia instead?

    Reply
    • Rachel Gurk says

      June 15, 2020 at 10:27 am

      I haven’t tested it that way, so I’m not sure if it would work or not. Let me know if you give it a try!

      Reply
  5. Shayna says

    April 27, 2020 at 1:10 pm

    Can this be made with regular lemons?

    Reply
    • Rachel Gurk says

      April 27, 2020 at 5:33 pm

      Should work fine!

      Reply
  6. Vickie Turley says

    March 24, 2020 at 10:09 pm

    I noticed the nutritional values listed are not the correct values for this recipe. Can you let me know the calories, the fat, the protein? I know t e carbs are 9.5. 

    Reply
    • Rachel Gurk says

      March 27, 2020 at 11:15 am

      Hi Vickie, these numbers serve as an estimate…if you want to figure out exact numbers please refer to the information on the packages you’re using. I do agree that they seem a little off, but I’ve tried to recalculate and keep coming up with the same thing. I’m not an RD so please keep in mind that the numbers given are only an estimate.

      Reply
      • Tig says

        December 11, 2021 at 10:13 am

        4 stars
        The recipe is great but I nearly didn’t try it as the carb count shown is way too high. Luckily I realised it had to be wrong.

        Reply
        • Rachel Gurk says

          December 13, 2021 at 11:36 am

          Thanks for the heads-up, will look into that!

          Reply
  7. tgbn says

    March 17, 2020 at 9:24 am

    Yes, almond flour is dry and crumbly. I mixed it with others to make it hold better. Even the is was a little crumbly. I will add some flax to hold it together. very delicious. I can’t wait to add poppyseeds. I didn’t have meyer’s lemon. I used regular lemon and 1/8t stevia to compensate. Muffins in a mug are flexible. add a bit more of this and that to get desired results. ie. I add a small amount of pea protein for nutrition and texture (for really wet muffins) The pea protein seems to add a definite cake like texture, from my experience. but I experiment. Easy to. Don’t be afraid to try things out and get the results you want. after all, it’s only 1 muffin that mignt be thrown out. Cheers!

    Reply
    • Rachel Gurk says

      March 18, 2020 at 2:16 pm

      Thanks for the comment!

      Reply
    • TGBN says

      March 25, 2020 at 12:40 pm

      UPDATE: I made it with the flax. It was the perfect texture of a GF muffin. not crumbly or dry. I added poppyseeds and made it into my now favorite lemon-poppy muffin. My parents loved it as well! I added 1T flax to the 3/4c and filled it with almond and coconut flour. I didn’t measure the flours. I just made sure it was 3/4c. thank you for this recipe. I would never have my favorite muffin again without this. This recipe is so flexible, I can’t wait to turn it into almond blueberry muffin.

      Cheers!

      Reply
      • TGBN says

        March 25, 2020 at 12:54 pm

        UPDATE: again. Sorry, i forgot to mention I was distracted when making this and I completely messed up the recipe. I did 1C flour mixture instead of 3/4c. I had to adjust all the other ingredients to get the ratios right. I added 1 an extra egg for the wet ingredient, then i simply tossed in a little more of the others to my “judgement”. I didn’t bother with another lemon. I ended up with enough for 3 muffins. I microwave them individually 1 min and add 30 seconds because it’s faster. I cook in a flurry in my kitchen with multiple things going on. So I cut corners anywhere I can. So this goes to show you how flexible this recipe is. Just add a little of this and that to get the results you want. You won’t be disappointed.
        Cheers!

        Reply
        • Rachel Gurk says

          March 27, 2020 at 11:06 am

          Thanks for taking the time to share your adaptations!

          Reply
      • Rachel Gurk says

        March 27, 2020 at 11:06 am

        So glad you liked it! Thanks!

        Reply
  8. Jann says

    February 28, 2020 at 1:51 pm

    Not sure what I may have done wrong but I followed recipe exactly. All I got was a crumbly extremely dry mess. It was totally inedible. So disappointed.

    Reply
    • Rachel Gurk says

      March 1, 2020 at 8:33 pm

      Hmm, sorry to hear that! Did you follow the directions exactly? Baking can be tricky.

      Reply
  9. Joefine says

    September 3, 2019 at 2:11 am

    Great! I’ll make this cake as soon as I can!

    Reply
    • Rachel Gurk says

      September 4, 2019 at 12:38 pm

      I hope you love it!

      Reply
  10. Cheryl says

    December 12, 2018 at 1:49 pm

    So simple, and so good! I used a mandarin, since I was out
     of lemons and what a treat! Thank you for a wonderful
    Low carb recipe!

    Reply
    • Rachel Gurk says

      December 12, 2018 at 2:55 pm

      So glad to hear that, Cheryl! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!

      Reply
  11. Deanna says

    December 11, 2018 at 7:06 pm

    My favorite so far, and I am a chocolate girl, but this lemon one…. OMGOSH! So yummy!

    Reply
    • Rachel Gurk says

      December 11, 2018 at 8:17 pm

      So glad to hear that!

      Reply
    • Andi says

      January 24, 2020 at 1:15 am

      This cake is delicious!! My husband doesn’t normally prefer lemon cake but he loved this one. I can’t find the calorie and carb breakdown for this though… could you please post it with the recipe? Will make this often!

      Reply
      • Rachel Gurk says

        January 25, 2020 at 3:53 pm

        So glad you like it! It’s on our list to add nutritional info to this recipe, so we should be doing that soon!

        Reply
  12. Priscilla says

    April 28, 2018 at 9:20 pm

    Yum! just made this & will keep a copy of this recipe to make it again (now that I’m watching my carbs) the 2nd one will be for breakfast, I offered it to my daughter but she wanted chocolate cake instead, good more for me :) I didn’t have lemon zest so, I added a little lemon flavoring. I didn’t have Truvia so, I used 4 tsp. of homemade mix of Trim Health Mama Sweet Blend a mix of Eyrthrol (I had put in blender to make it a finer powder) and then added stevia. Thank you for sharing this recipe!

    Reply
    • Rachel Gurk says

      April 30, 2018 at 8:33 am

      So glad you liked it! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!

      Reply
  13. Nancy says

    April 14, 2018 at 1:31 pm

    Thank you. New to this low carb , low- no sugar. And needed  a treat. Easy easy and Good but I skimped on lemon and sugar subs next time will use entire lemon zest, juice and sweetener. 

    Reply
    • Rachel Gurk says

      April 15, 2018 at 4:02 pm

      So glad you liked it! Let me know what you think if you try it as written!

      Reply
Older Comments

Primary Sidebar

Welcome!

Hi, I'm Rachel! Life can be complicated, cooking shouldn't be! I believe that you can put a delicious meal on the table without stressing. It's possible, and I'm here to help. Have a seat at my table...let's chat, eat, and have fun! Read more...

Air Fryer Instant Pot 30 Minutes One Pan Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Slow Cooker Vegetarian 5 Ingredients

Trending

Cooked salmon fillet on a grey-toned plate with cooked asparagus spears. The salmon is being flaked with a fork.

Air Fryer Salmon – easy and delicious!

Pizza pasta being scooped from a pan with a wooden spoon.

Pizza Pasta – 1 pan, 20 minutes

Image of a giant bowl of spaghetti with turkey meatballs.

Baked Turkey Meatballs

Asparagus Panzanella Salad

Seasonal

15 Healthy Sheet Pan Meals

Pile of crispy zucchini slices.

Air Fryer Zucchini Chips

These easy vegetarian cauliflower tacos are full of flavor and protein! Even meat-lovers are going to flip over these fun tacos. Whether it's for Meatless Monday or a full-on vegetarian lifestyle, you're going to love these! They're also easy to make vegan. Make them tonight! 

Cauliflower Tacos with Chickpeas – Vegetarian

Overhead view of cauliflower steaks on a sheet pan with parmesan and chimichurri.

Cauliflower Steaks Recipe

Opens in a new window Opens an external site Opens an external site in a new window
Free Bonus!

5 Cooking Secrets to Save Time & Stress

Free email series of my best tips and recipes!

Featured On:

Back to Top
  • About
  • Contact
  • Press
  • Work with Me
  • Privacy
  • Accessibility
© 2022 Rachel Cooks®
Site Credits Designed by Melissa Rose Design Developed by Once Coupled