Sometimes you want a sweet snack without the time and effort required to whip up a batch of brownies or bake a cake. Sometimes you don’t want a whole coffee cake but rather just a single serving. This year, Aldi quietly started stocking its shelves with Baker’s Corner Single Serve Mug Delights.
You can find a lot of good recipes online to make individual mug cakes at home, and the advantage to these is that you can tailor sugar amounts and other ingredients according to your preferences.
But if you want a ready-made mix, Aldi’s Mug Delights were $1.99 for a box containing four single-serve pouches, or about 50 cents per serving, at the time of publication. Boxes ranged from 8.88 to 9.88 oz., with single servings from 2.22 to 2.47 oz. They come in three varieties: brownie mix, cinnamon coffee cake mix, and confetti cake mix.
Ready-made mug cake mixes also are available from national brands such as Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker, but you’ll pay a little more. Walmart’s Duncan Hines chocolate mug cake mixes were $2.50 for a four-pack (62.5 cents per serving) and its Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix with frosting was $2.97 (74.2 cents per serving) for a four-pack at the time of publication. Target’s Duncan Hines mug cake mixes were $2.69 (67.2 cents per serving) for a four-pack and its Betty Crocker mug mixes were $2.99 (74.7 cents per serving) for a four-pack at the time of publication.
All of Aldi’s mug mixes, regardless of flavor, are prepared in the same way. Empty a pouch of mug cake mix into a coffee mug. Add 2 level tablespoons of water and stir with a spoon until well combined. Microwave the mug with the cake mix on the highest setting for 1 minute to 1 minute and 10 seconds. The cake top should look moist but not runny. If the cake is runny, continue cooking at 10-second increments. Allow the cake to cool for 1 minute before serving.
Nothing really compares to homemade baked goods, but these cake mixes are all okay if you want a quick, easy, single-serving dessert. They all have more one-dimensional flavors and textures, but they are not bad. Let’s take a look at the individual mixes:
Baker’s Corner Single Serve Mug Delights Brownie Mix
Brownie in a mug, ready to eat.
These contain 290 calories per 2.48-oz. serving, with 1 gram of saturated fat, 35 mg of cholesterol, 270 mg of sodium, 53 grams of total carbohydrates, and 33 grams of total sugars. The first item on the ingredients list is sugar, so I can’t help but think that you could make these slightly less bad for you at home using a recipe where you can alter or limit how much sugar is added.
Brownie nutrition info and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
After microwaving, the brownies are soft, moist, and fudgy. They’re good by themselves, or my family enjoyed eating them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped topping. These may have been my family’s favorite flavor overall.
Baker’s Corner Single Serve Mug Delights Cinnamon Coffee Cake Mix
These contain 290 calories per 2.47-oz. serving, with 0.5 grams of saturated fat, 35 mg of cholesterol, 320 mg of sodium, 54 grams of total carbohydrates, and 30 grams of total sugars.
Cinnamon Coffee Cake nutrition info and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
This coffee cake is fine, and some of my family members really liked it. No surprise: it’s missing the crumbly cinnamon topping usually associated with coffee cake, but otherwise it has all the traditional flavor of a coffee cake.
Baker’s Corner Single Serve Mug Delights Confetti Cake Mix
Confetti cake in a mug, ready to eat.
These have the smallest serving size of all the mug mixes. They contain 260 calories per 2.22-oz. serving, with 0 grams of saturated fat, 35 mg of cholesterol, 250 mg of sodium, 49 grams of total carbohydrates, and 27 grams of total sugars. As with the brownie mix, this cake mix lists sugar as the first item in the ingredients list.
Confetti Cake nutrition info and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
The Confetti cake mix is nice and cake-like, although perhaps a little skimpy on the confetti sprinkles. One family member liked this one enough that she requested more.
The Verdict:
Aldi sells decent mug mixes if you want an individual serving of brownies, coffee cake, or confetti cake. They’re cheaper than name brand mixes from Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines and are quick to prepare, requiring only a couple of tablespoons of water. They are no substitute for home-baked goods, but if you’re short on time or you want dessert for one, they’re not bad. We particularly like the brownie one.
These are fantastic!!! If you add a tablespoon or so of broken walnuts to either the coffee cake or the brownie mix before adding the water, they are just as good as homemade, in my opinion, and as you pointed out, way cheaper than the competition. I’ve also tried adding blueberries to the coffee cake mix with equally fantastic results. Another advantage to these over homemade is that you always get a fresh, hot result, and there’s no leftover cake or brownie encouraging you to eat more than you should. I think you’ll find the mixes contain few calories and less fat than most homemade recipes, too. If you do really feel that you need another serving, you can always make another pouch. (Chances are that during the few minutes that will require, you’ll discover you’re already full and will share it with another member of the household instead!) It’s all good…
The Aldi stores in my area stopped selling these last year. So disappointed, because my grandkids loved them. I loved them because they were more affordable than the other brands.