Chocolate Lava Cake

Chocolate Lava Cake … warm chocolate oozing out decadence

My buddy Anemone showed me this yummy looking Chocolate Lava Cake recipe and we made a date to come over my place to make it. It was really fun for friends to cook together! I don’t normally have a sweet tooth, and I wasn’t really acquainted with this French dessert (see cooking note 1), but my friend convinced me that I will like it. She was right – it was really good! Not too sweet like most desserts are, and just the right amount of chocolatey-ness. Not just any chocolate, but warm & oozing runny chocolate goodness (hence the names chocolate lava cake/molten chocolate cake/chocolate fondant pudding).

Usually served with ice cream on the side, and some berries.

Both my friend and I agreed that it is a very simple recipe and we succeeded in making it to the right consistency on the first attempt (chocolate oozing out when cut in the middle). I think this is an excellent dessert to serve when entertaining guests – simply prepare everything in advance (see cooking note 2 below), and after your guests have finished their main course, just pop the ramekins into the oven for 10 minutes. Your guests will really be impressed with how effortless you whip up a warm and delicious dessert with no sweat and in no time at all – never mind the messy behind-the-scenes, you would have washed up before they arrived

Ingredients
(makes three 6-oz ramekin cakes)
- 100g dark chocolate (example, Cadbury Old Gold 70% cocoa), cut to small cubes
- 100g unsalted butter, cut to small cubes
- 2 eggs
- 50g caster sugar
- 20g self-raising flour

To decorate (optional)
- icing sugar and small sieve
- berries
- vanilla ice cream

Additional tools needed
- spatula
- electric whisk (hand-held)
- oven safe ramekins (6-8 oz)

Directions
1. Melt dark chocolate and butter using either the microwave (see cooking note 3), a hot water bath or a double boiler (note: do not use direct stove heat or the ingredients will burn).
2. In a large bowl, use an electric whisk (you can whisk by hand too but it’s more tedious) to beat the eggs and sugar till the mixture turns pale and frothy. This will take a few minutes.
3. Pour melted chocolate/butter you prepared in step 1, into the egg mixture prepared in step 2. Stir in the flour. Use a spatula to mix everything evenly.
4. Grease your ramekins with some melted butter (so that the cake will come off cleanly when it is baked). Fill the ramekin almost 3/4 full with the chocolate mixture and bake in a preheated oven of 180C (356F) for about 10 minutes. Mine took exactly 11 minutes. The cake is deliberately slightly undercooked so as to achieve its ideal consistency which is runny in the middle (hence the name fondant/molten/chocolate lava) but if you over-bake it, you will get a super moist chocolate cake which is yummy too.
5. When it is baked, remove ramekin from oven and let cool for 1-2 minutes. Use a spoon to gently loosen the edges. Carefully invert the cake onto serving plate.
6. Serving suggestion: Use a sieve to dust icing sugar over the cake. Serve a scoop of vanilla ice cream and some berries at the side.

Cooking Notes:
1. The origins of this dessert is French though a US chef claimed to have discovered it in his New York kitchen when he under-baked the dessert (source: wiki).
2. If you are preparing the batter in advance, do not keep it in the fridge as the mixture will hardened and the time for baking it will be quite different. Prepare just a few hours in advance and keep at room temperature.
3. Check out my detailed step-by-step tutorials for melting chocolate and butter using a microwave oven:
- How to Melt Chocolate Using a Microwave Oven
- How to Melt Butter Using a Microwave Oven

Ingredients Used butter • chocolate • egg • flour • sugar