Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes

Do you ever have those moments when you want something sweet, but you don’t want to make a huge batch?  Maybe it’s just you and one other person living in your home and you really don’t have a need for a lot of desserts.  That’s where small-batch desserts come in super handy.  And can I just tell you something?  These molten chocolate lava cakes may be my favorite small batch recipe to date and that’s saying a lot given the number of times I’ve made this small batch chocolate chip cookie recipe.

You can mix everything up for these lava cakes in one bowl and be eating them in less than 30 minutes.  Oh, and how perfect would these be for Valentine’s Day?!
You’ll start out by melting some butter and chocolate together in the microwave.  I like to buy a 4-ounce bar of semi-sweet chocolate and save it for whenever I want to make these lava cakes.  You’ll only need 2-ounces, so I just cut it in half and save the other half for later.  I really love Baker’s semi-sweet chocolate bars for this recipe and I use them all of the time in other recipes as well.

Once the chocolate is melted and smooth, you’ll whisk in some powdered sugar, an egg, one egg yolk, and a little vanilla extract.  Then, you’ll mix in some flour and a little instant espresso powder.  The espresso powder just enhances the chocolate flavor in these cakes, it won’t make them taste like coffee.  I love to add a little espresso powder to chocolate desserts to make them even more chocolatey.  If you don’t have any espresso powder, you can feel free to leave it out of the recipe.

I also used two 6-ounce ramekins to bake these and they worked perfectly for this recipe.  I have ramekins in a few different sizes and use them all of the time, they’re inexpensive and great to have on hand!

Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes
Yummy Cake with hot melted chocolate inside

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 11 minutes
Total Time: 26 minutes

Ingredients

•     7 oz semisweet chocolate chips 55% cocoa content, approximately 1 cup + 3 tbsp
•     ¼ tsp sea salt or just a pinch, if you don’t like a hint of saltiness in your cakes
•     4 oz unsalted butter 1 stick of butter, see DF substitutions in Recipe Notes
•     1 tbsp vanilla extract
•     2 egg yolks from large eggs
•     2 whole eggs large
•     2.3 oz white sugar about ⅓ cup
•     0.7 oz AP flour or 2 tbsp, see GF substitutions in Recipe Notes
•     Confectioner’s sugar and berries to serve
•     Extra butter and cocoa powder to dust ramekins

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Generously butter four, ½ cup ramekins, and dust them with cocoa powder. Set aside until needed.
3. Place the butter, chocolate and salt in a large microwave-safe bowl.
4. Melt the ingredients in the microwave in 30 second increments, while stirring in between. This should take approximately 60 - 90 seconds. You can also melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler.
5. Stir the sugar and vanilla into the warm butter-chocolate mixture.
6. Next, add the eggs and yolks and whisk them in well. You should end up with a “gloopy” chocolate batter.
7. Stir in the flour.
8. Pour the batter into the prepared ramekins. Make sure they are no more than ¾ of the way full, since they will rise as they bake. If you're not baking the cakes right away, cover the ramekins with plastic wrap and freeze/refrigerate for later.
9. Place the ramekins on a baking tray and transfer the tray into the preheated oven. The cakes will take about 11 minutes to bake in metal ramekins. In glass/porcelain ramekins, they may take about 12 minutes. (See Recipe Notes for baking times for frozen cakes).
10. When the cakes are done, remove them from the oven, and let them rest for about 30 seconds (no more than a minute).
11. Using a towel/cloth napkin, turn the cakes out onto serving plates (be careful, as the ramekins will be very hot, and may be slippery too). Tap the top of the ramekin with a spoon to loosen the cake, and gently remove the ramekin to reveal the cake underneath. Serve immediately while the cakes are still warm.
12. Dust the cakes with confectioner's sugar, and serve with raspberries or strawberries.

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