Chocolate lava cakes are love! And now you don’t have to just wait to enjoy them in a restaurant as today we will see how we can easily make them at home. The trick to the perfect lava cake is to undercook it just a little bit, so that the outside of the cake is a solid mass while melted mouth-watering chocolate awaits you inside.

Ingredients

• 4 ounces or 114g semi-sweet baking chocolate

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (plus a little more for greasing the cups)

• 2 tablespoons sugar (plus a little more for the cups)

• 2 large eggs

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Photos by the writer
Photos by the writer

Method

First, preheat the oven to 425°F and grease two ramekin cups, or any cupcake mould, generously with butter. I used silicon baking cups. Put a small spoonful of sugar in each cup, then turn the cup sideways and rotate it so that the sugar is coating the butter all around. Take out any excess.

Chop chocolate into small pieces and in a microwave-safe bowl, microwave for 30 seconds, take out and stir, then microwave again for 30 seconds. The chocolate should be melted by now but if it isn’t, microwave for another 20 seconds and stir again.

Using an electric beater (I used only beater attachment as the bowl and quantity of ingredients were small), beat the butter for a minute. Add sugar and cream together. You can also use a rubber spatula for this.

Add two eggs and beat until everything is combined and the mixture is starting to foam.

Add the flour and salt to combine everything. Add melted chocolate, and gently fold it into the batter with a rubber spatula. My chocolate had become partially solid by this time, so I melted it again for just 10 seconds in the microwave.

Divide the batter evenly between the two greased cups, which shouldn’t be more than 3/4 full.

Put them in the oven and bake them for about 12 minutes or so, until just the top is set, but still a little wet, and the edges of the cake start to pull away from the cup slightly. If you overcook, there will be no melted chocolate spilling out from inside when you cut the cake.

Leave them for five minutes to cool. Take them out, flipped upside-down, on a dessert plate. Serve immediately.

Garnish with whatever you like: whipped cream, ice cream, chocolate syrup, fruits or just some powdered sugar like I did.

Published in Dawn, Young World, October 27th, 2018

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