Healthier coffee mug cake

I've been intrigued by coffee mug cakes ever since I heard about them on twitter several months ago, but hadn't gotten around to trying one until this past week. Since I'd long forgotten the link, I googled "coffee mug cake" and checked out several recipes before deciding on one.

All of them seemed to include 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, which seemed a bit excessive, particularly after seeing the size of the finished cake. It was pretty tasty, but all evening my stomach felt queasy. I checked the label to remind myself of how many fat grams are in 3 tablespoons of oil, which did nothing for my queasy stomach and instead almost made me faint.

I decided to try and make a healthier version, using the old "replace the oil with applesauce" trick. I tweaked a few other things too...rather than chocolate, I have this obsession with pumpkin, (have you noticed?) particularly this time of year. I replaced the oil with a combination of applesauce and pure pumpkin. I replaced the cocoa and sugar with pudding mix. While it's no pumpkin roll, it was quite tasty, and much faster to make! I served mine with a healthy dose of whipped topping - yum! (just remember it's going to slide right off if you don't let the cake cool first - oops)

If pumpkin isn't your thing, use all applesauce or substitute a different flavor, the recipe is quite flexible.

Pumpkin Mug Cake
4 tablespoons flour
1 small package of instant pudding mix
2 tablespoons applesauce
2 tablespoons pumpkin puree
1 egg
4 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Mix flour, spices and instant pudding. Add egg, applesauce, pumpkin and milk, stir well - make sure to get the dry ingredients mixed in at the bottom of the mug. Microwave for 5 and a half minutes. (I have an 800 watt microwave, for reference) Let cake sit in mug for a few minutes to cool. It has a very moist consistency, much like the bread without the sauce.