Years ago when my brother just started dating his wife, he was telling me about how she’s really into making desserts. He started to describe something that she made for him recently, and he was saying it was the best chocolate dessert he’d ever had. So, of course that sparked my curiosity. When I asked him what the name of it was, he said, “Um, something lava. With Chocolate. I don’t know, you’ll have to ask her, but it was like a warm, chocolate gooey cake.” Not long after that, I was asking her questions. This was before I really started getting into baking, so she picked up some custard cups for me at the store and brought them over to keep whenever I wanted to make the recipe. This is something that’s literally been inside my head for years, but it got stuffed away with all the other wonderful recipes that I’ve been wanted to try…so it was forgotten about…until now.
I highly recommend trying these out before you serve them as a dessert, unless you don’t mind your friends and family being guinea pigs just in case it comes out as chocolate soup. But hey, chocolate soup is pretty dang delicious, too. If that does in fact happen when you turn one cake out onto a plate, just pop the others bake into the oven for another couple of minutes. You’ll definitely want to serve these almost immediately out of the oven when they’re warm, and the chocolate gooeyness comes oozing out of the middle of the cake when you cut into it. You can also divide the recipe in half if you only want to make it for two people rather than four, and double it if you’re serving more people. And to save time, you can always mix up the batter ahead of time and keep it in the fridge, then spoon it into the custard cups and bake when ready. This way would be great if you’re serving this as a dessert following dinner. It is insanely delicious!!
Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes Recipe:
4 oz. semisweet chocolate
1 stick butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
6 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Butter 4 (6-ounce) custard cups. Melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave, or in a double boiler. Add the flour and sugar to chocolate mixture. Stir in the eggs and yolks until smooth, stir in vanilla. Divide the batter evenly among the custard cups. Place in the oven and bake for 14 minutes. The edges should be firm but the center will be runny. Run a knife around the edges to loosen and invert onto dessert plates, top with whipped topping and caramel sauce (optional).
