Chocolate Lava Cake with a Molten Center
The restaurant dessert you actually can make at home.
The liquid centre is not a trick and not a filling: it is simply batter that has not cooked yet. Which is why the only parameter that decides anything is the time in the oven, and the difference is one minute.
8 to 10 minutes at 200 °C. It is right when the edge is firm and the centre still trembles if you tap the mould lightly. Two minutes more and you have a very good chocolate cake — just without the lava.
Butter and flour the moulds generously, or they will not come out whole, and turn them out directly onto the plate you are serving on. None of them survives a second move.
There is also a dulce de leche lava cake.
Ingredients
- 300 g dark chocolate
- 120 g butter
- 6 eggs
- 100 g sugar
- 20 g all-purpose flour (plain flour)
- 10 g unsweetened cocoa powder
- Powdered sugar (icing sugar), to dust
- Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, to serve
Method
- 1
In a wide bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar to the ribbon stage — foamy, pale and with volume.
- 2
Sift the flour together with the cocoa powder and fold them into the beaten mixture with gentle movements.
- 3
Melt the chopped chocolate with the butter over a bain-marie or in the microwave. Stir it evenly into the egg mixture.
- 4
Butter and flour 12 individual moulds generously (dariole or muffin tins). Divide the mixture between them without filling them completely.
- 5
Bake in a hot preheated oven at 200 °C for 8 to 10 minutes. The right point is when the edges are firm but the centre stays soft.
- 6
Turn them out directly onto the serving plate, very carefully. Dust with icing sugar and serve immediately with cream or ice cream.