Molten Chocolate Lava Cake

So I've been behind on updating this blog and its my own fault really... I've just been too busy, including the wedding that I just did over the last weekend which I over-ambitiously also baked 200 cupcakes for. I say over ambitious because they took up a lot more time than I had and I had to wake up at 5am to get them all ready in time. (However, I am pleased to say that they disappeared super quick and I even had one lady come up to tell me that she absolutely loved them). I also spent an evening baking a batch of lemon cupcakes for my dear friend Tanya, just to cheer her up from the drudges of work and made the frosting her favourite colour: pink.

Anyhoo! Cupcakes aside, today's post is about my recent attempt to make molten lava cake. This really started out as a combination of two things: first, Nic adores molten chocolate lava cake. Its the one dessert that he'll always order when we eat out and its on the menu. And because he loves it so, I decided it was one of the desserts that I just had to learn myself. Second, being the oldie that I have become, the grocery store that I frequent recently had a promotion where if you spend a certain amount you earn a stamp and after collecting so many stamps you get to redeem one of a range of dishes. Normally I wouldn't really have bothered but one of the items up for grabs in this promotion were a pair of ramekins. So collect the stamps I did and I was able to redeem two pairs! 

The recipe I decided to try was from one of my favourite websites: Joy of Baking. I particularly love this site because they put up videos of what they are baking which is really great so you get to see what it should look like as you are going along, and not just the perfect looking finished product. 

First, you need to butter and sugar coat the sides of the ramekins like I've done above. 

Separate 3 eggs. 

Melt together 170grams of semi-sweet chocolate and half a cup of butter (this smells divine!)

Next you want to beat the egg yolks and one third cup of sugar until it becomes thick, pale and fluffy. (I stopped taking photos here.... I was too engrossed in the whipping). Beat in a teaspoon of vanilla extract and then fold in the melted chocolate mixture.

In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites and the cream of tartar. Then slowly add a tablespoon of sugar and beat it until stiff peaks form. Add the egg white mixture to the chocolate mixture, whisking it in gently so that the batter is just incorporated.

Divide the batter between the 4 ramekins and bake at 200 degrees celsius for just 10 - 15 mins, depending on how "done" you want your cake to be.

Molten cakes are like soufflés in a sense. They'll start to deflate as soon as you take them out of the oven so they are best served immediately.

Since Nic and I like our molten lava cakes with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side, I decided to tip it out onto a plate. This is where the buttering and sugaring of the sides as instructed earlier comes in. If you want to serve it on a plate, make sure you were generous with the butter and sugar so that the cake doesn't stick to the sides.

The turned out perfectly! And of course, they had to be eaten straight away so we scooped on the ice-cream.

And now for the real test: stuck my spoon into the middle and low and behold, the chocolately goodness in the centre oozed out!

Will definitely have to make this one again!

The only thing I'm going to try differently the next time is coating the ramekins with icing sugar instead of granulated sugar as per the recipe. I found that the sugar coating did not dissolve when baked and formed a crunchy coating around my otherwise warm and moist cake. It also make the cake too sweet and I ended up scraping the sugar off before eating the cake. So try it with icing sugar instead, its not as sweet as granulated sugar and won't give the cake a crunch. Or, as my neighbour suggested, try it with a coating of cocoa powder, though I suspect that that will taste a bit too bitter. If you try it drop me a comment and tell me how it tasted!

Make your own! The full recipe and video can be found here.