Molten Lava Cakes are soft chocolate cakes with a warm chocolate center. They are made with five simple ingredients and can be ready to eat in less than 25 minutes! They are a great easy, quick, and oh-so-satisfying dessert.
The love of Molten Lava Cakes is universal, right? Like, there cannot be a language where a soft chocolate cake filled with warm chocolate doesn’t sound delicious. Top it with vanilla ice cream, or any kind of ice cream for that matter, and it’s a no-brainer. I would call someone a liar to their face if they said they didn’t like Chocolate Lava Cakes. That’s how strongly I feel about it.
Are Molten Lava Cakes Hard To Make?
Not at all! People always assume that these little cakes are tricky to make or you have to do something special in order to get the molten chocolate center, but that is not the case at all. These are a few of the things that make molten lava cakes extra easy:
- Chocolate Lava Cakes require simple ingredients. You only need five ingredients and I would be willing to bet that you have all of them in your kitchen already!
- You don’t need a mixer. No need to pull out a mixer for this recipe. You just need to whisk the ingredients by hand.
- They bake quickly. There isn’t a long bake time, so no waiting around for these delicious cakes!
Ingredients for Molten Lava Cakes:
- Unsalted Butter. I always make sure to use unsalted butter when baking because there is no “standard” for the amount of salt they can add to butter. So if you add salt to a recipe and then use salted butter you could end up with a very salty end product.
- Chocolate. I prefer semi-sweet chocolate, but you can use whatever you prefer.
- Eggs. It will be easier to incorporate the eggs into the batter if they are at room temperature.
- Egg Yolks. See above note.
- Granulated sugar. This will sweeten the molten lava cakes.
- All-purpose flour. Measuring the flour correctly is very important. I suggest weighing your flour out (I use this scale). If you want to use a measuring cup, make sure you spoon the flour into the cup and level it off with a knife. Don’t use the cup to scoop directly from the flour.
How to make Molten Lava Cakes.
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F). Prepare 4 small ramekins by spraying them with non-stick spray. Then pour a couple of spoonfuls of granulated sugar into one of the ramekins and spin around until the bottom and sides are coated. Pour the remaining sugar in the next ramekin and continue until all 4 are coated. This will make a crunchy sugar crust on the outside of the Chocolate Lava Cakes.
Step 2: In a small saucepan combine the chocolate and butter. Place over low heat until melted. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
Step 3: In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, and sugar until the mixture is slightly thickened.
Step 4: Add the cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until thickened. Add flour and mix until combined.
Step 5: Divide the batter evenly between the prepared ramekins. (You can refrigerate the batter at this point and then bake for 15-17 minutes when ready to serve.) If you want to bake the molten lava cakes right away place the ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake for 13-15 minutes or until the outside is set and just the very center is jiggly.
Step 6: Remove from oven and turn the ramekins over onto a plate. The easiest way to do this is to place a ramekin on a potholder in your hand, flip a plate over on top of it and then turn the whole thing over. You might have to lightly shake the ramekin in order to get the cake out.
More Chocolate Recipes
- Chocolate Espresso Madeleines– Soft espresso madeleines dunked in dark chocolate.
- Mini Cookies and Cream Chocolate Cupcakes– These mini cookies and cream chocolate cupcakes are topped with a swirl of Oreo buttercream.
- Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies– Chocolate cookies filled with chocolate chips topped with a melty marshmallow and dipped in chocolate.
- Sourdough Chocolate Cake– This one bowl chocolate cake uses sourdough discard and is topped with a chocolate fudge frosting.
More Chocolate Recipes From Kitchen 335
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Lava Cakes– Soft molten lava cakes with a gooey peanut butter center.
- Stuffed Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie– A deep dish chocolate chip cookie filled with chocolate.
- Chocolate Pots de Creme– The creamiest baked chocolate pudding.
- Chocolate Black Bean Cupcakes– a moist and rich chocolate black bean cake and a silky chocolate glaze topping.
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Originally posted August 2019.
Molten Lava Cake
Ingredients
For Cake:
- 1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter
- 2/3 cup (113 grams) chocolate
- 2 large eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon (8 grams) all-purpose flour
Instructions
For Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Prepare 4 small ramekins by spraying them with non-stick spray. Pour a couple of spoonfuls of granulated sugar in the sprayed ramekin and roll around so that it coats the bottom and sides. This will create a sugar crust on the lava cake.
- In a small saucepan combine the butter and chocolate. Place over low heat until melted. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, and sugar until slightly thickened. Add the cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until thickened. Add the flour and mix until combined.
- Divide the batter up evenly between the prepared ramekins. Place the ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake for 11 minutes or until the outside is set and the very center is jiggly. Note: you can also refrigerate the batter at this point and then bake for 13 minutes when you are ready to serve.
- Remove from oven and carefully flip the ramekins over onto a plate.
Nutrition
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GiAda says
January 17, 2021 at 1:54 pmDelicious and easy to follow recIpe!
Andrea says
January 26, 2021 at 2:23 pmA must try!
This recipe was iNcredibly easy to make in the moment but also super heLpful You can make it Ahead of time!
The sugar Coating Of the ramekin was a game changer AS it added texture to the Outside of the cake.
Niki says
April 9, 2021 at 4:29 pmI love chocolate so I had to try this recipe as soon as I saw it. It seemed so easy to make and it really was.
I just needed a few simple ingredients but the result is the pure chocolate heaven itself.
So thank you for the recipe, I love it!
Emilie says
May 15, 2021 at 3:23 amI will never need another chocolate dessert recipe. foolproof and completely insanely delicious!!