Strawberry Shortcake in a Cup

This is an easy to make strawberry shortcake recipe made in a cup using a microwave in just a few minutes. Perfect mug in a cup for one.

Topped with a sweet cream flavoured with strawberries and topped with fresh strawberries. Easy to make as a regular cake or a gluten and dairy free recipe.

You can serve this strawberry shortcake in a cup or scoop it out to a bowl and add more strawberries, cream or other toppings.

This strawberry shortcake in a cup recipe makes a deliciously light strawberry sponge which is complimented with the strawberry flavoured cream.

A perfect summer flavour in the cup!

Why make this recipe?

• Super easy & quick to make
• Perfect recipe size for one person
• Make with other fresh fruit – raspberry, blueberry, blackberries etc.

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What makes this recipe work

Real butter always makes a difference to the taste of this strawberry shortcake as does good quality vanilla.

The lack of egg in this recipe means that you’ll end up with the lightest strawberry sponge cake ever. No rubbery mud cakes here!

My top tips on making shortbread in a cup successfully the first time round

Make sure you use a regular coffee or a tea cup (mine is about 300 ml volume – about 1 1/4 cup measure) suitable for microwave.

If your cake mixture fills more than half of your cup, swap the cup for a large one. You want to make sure that your shortcake won’t end up overflowing on the sides.

Mix first all the dry ingredients and then add all the wet ingredients.

If your shortbread is not done within the time in the recipe, add 10 seconds at a time to make sure that it’s completely baked through.

The sides of the cake should start to part from the cup and the middle should be firm (ish…).

Pro tip

Use powdered freeze dried strawberries for extra flavour of strawberries. Add 1 teaspoon to the recipe mix and follow the recipe as normal.

Freeze dried strawberries are amazing and taste like the most fragrant and fruity strawberry you’ve ever tasted.

You can also swap the vanilla extract for strawberry flavour if you have any. This will add extra strawberry flavour in case the real strawberries are not ripen enough.

Any specialist equipment needed?

Microwave and a cup that’s suitable for a microwave. If you don’t have a suitable cup, use small bowl or plastic beaker (suitable for microwave).

Allergies & dietary requirements

As it is, the Strawberry Shortbread in a Cup Recipe contains gluten and dairy, but it can be easily made into gluten free and dairy free cake.

Dairy free – make sure that you use dairy free butter or vegetable or sunflower oil. Swap the regular milk for plant based milk. Use dairy free or plant based cream or yoghurt or mascarpone.

Gluten Free – use gluten-free flour mix for cakes (plain gluten free flour mix). You might need to add little bit more milk or add just 1 teaspoon less of the flour.

Ingredients & Possible Substitutions

For the strawberry shortcake

• 1-2 strawberries depends on size
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour plain flour or gluten-free cake flour mix
• 4 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 ½ tablespoon unsalted butter or vegetable or sunflower oil
• 3 tablespoons milk dairy or non-dairy – plant based milk
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch salt

For the strawberry cream

• 1/4 cup whipped cream or mascarparone, white yoghurt or dairy free – plant based cream
• 2 strawberries
• 1 teaspoon icing sugar or fine white sugar

How to make strawberry shortcake in a cup

To make the strawberry cream

• 1/4 cup whipped cream or mascarparone, white yoghurt or dairy free – plant based cream
• 2 strawberries
• 1 teaspoon icing sugar or fine white sugar

To make the strawberry shortbread cake

Using a good size cup that’s suitable for microwave, first melt the butter.

Measure out the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix together with a fork or a spoon.

Add the milk and vanilla extract and mix together well.

Chop the strawberries into smaller pieces and gently fold into the shortcake batter. One large strawberry or two smaller ones are usually enough for this amount.

Microwave for 1 minute (on 800 V microwave setting) in the centre of your microwave.

Check the cake and if the mixture doesn’t look baked (it’s wet in the middle), put it back to the microwave and add extra 10 – 20 seconds. Check again and microwave more if needed.

To make the strawberry cream topping

Clean and hull your strawberries and chop them into smaller pieces.

Put the strawberries in bowl and mix with the sugar. If using white caster sugar, leave the sugar to dissolve first. If using icing sugar, mix and carry on with adding the cream.

Add the cream (or yoghurt, mascarpone, cream cheese or plant based alternative) and mix with the strawberries.

Top your strawberry shortcake with the strawberry cream and enjoy this treat straightaway!

What else you can use for topping?

If you haven’t got extra cream or strawberries, you can also use any homemade curd, jam or syrup as a topping or a mixture of these. A little bit of whipped cream with homemade crumble topping always goes down well!

If you are counting calories, you can also leave the extra toppings out and just add strawberries or a light dusting of icing sugar.

MORE CAKE RECIPES

• Traditional Gingerbread Tray Bake (all in one method) >>
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How else you can make this recipe?

Raspberry Shortcake in a Cup – swap the straberries for raspberries, but leave them whole. Use about 5-6 raspberries for the shortcake and extra ones for the cream topping.

Blackberries Shortcake in a Cup – swap the strawberries for blackberries and leave them whole. Use about 5-6 for the sponge mix and some extra for the cream

Serving size

This Strawberry Shortcake in a Cup recipe makes one regular size cup cake – a desert or a sweet treat for one person.

Can I scale up this recipe?

Yes, absolutely! This recipe can be easily scaled up.

If you want to serve the shortbread in a cup, then it’s better to make individual cakes and measure and mix everything separately in each cup. Alternatively you can mix everything in one large bowl and then half it between the two cups.

To bake two cups (or more) in microwave, place them all together (you can probably fit up to 4 in one microwave) and bake them on 2 minutes (one minute per cup).

They might need more than that, because they are not going to be exactly in the middle of the microwave, so the baking will take a tad longer.

Alternatively, you can make more by doubling or tripling the quantity of the cake mix, bake it in a large shallow microwave container. Make sure that the cake batter doesn’t come more than about 2-3 inches (5 cm) to the side of your container. The batter will rise as it bakes.

The baking time will party depend on how many times you’ve multiplied the cake recipe by.

2 quantities of the cake recipe (baked in one container) – approx 2 minutes plus 20-30 seconds (check after 2 minutes)

4 quanties of the cake recipe (baked in one container) – approx 5 minutes (check after 3 minutes and then after each other 1 minute)

When your strawberry shortcake is baked, leave it to stand for 1-2 minutes to firm up.

Afterwards, you can cup the cake into smaller rounds or squares, carefully remove them and plate them up and decorate with the strawberry cream.

MORE CAKE RECIPES

• Rhubarb & Yoghurt Tray Bake Cake >>
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Can this recipe be made in advance?

This strawberry shortbread in a cup is best eaten the minute your microwave ‘pings’ for the last time! It’s so quick to make that it really doesn’t need to be made in advance.

How to store this recipe

Eat your cake straight away or keep it in the fridge for 1-2 days if needed. You can warm up the cake a little to make it less spongy.

Can I freeze shortbread cake in a cup?

Mud cakes can be frozen, but I prefer to always make one fresh rather than to freeze it.

If you’ve made a larger quantity, that you can’t use up straightaway, you can freeze the cake for 1-3 months.

It might have a slight soggy texture when you defrost it, but you can warm it up (and slightly dry out the sponge) in the microwave for 20-30 seconds.

This blog post was originally written on 3 March 2022 and last updated 08 September 2022