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| Yum! Chocolate Lava Cake |
I have a number of recipes
that didn’t make the cut this month. February would have had to have had at
least another 20 days for me to use up the collection I have. So here we are, one
day from the end. I want to do a dessert, and I have four options.
Do I go for the
unusual/interesting/may-not-have-heard-of option, two that are variations of ones
you probably already do, or a dessert that screams elegance and fancy
restaurant? And which one would DH likely give up Five Tongues to? I mean, I
like validation, too. So fancy dessert it is.
I almost made this for
Valentine’s Day, but I decided to save it to give DH an unexpected treat. He
loves lava/molten chocolate cakes because they are so chocolatey dense. Being
warm, I think they also fall into the comfort food category.
The Internet,
unsurprisingly, abounds with lava cakes/melted chocolate cake recipes. Interestingly,
three versions I found (maybe there are more) are attributed to Carnival Cruise
Lines. The recipes are related but different of their Melting Chocolate Cake, a
signature dessert for Carnival. Why so many versions? Beats me, but it might
have to do with which chef they ask. Seems like cutting down a recipe for
thousands to one for six might affect
proportions. I can’t explain it.
Back in the day, I used to
make lava cake for a crowd in the slow cooker. Not as pretty, but it serves a bunch. If that interests you, check out this slow cooker chocolate lava cake.
In one version of Carnival’s
Melting Chocolate Cake, you watch a video (which I suggest if you haven’t made
a melted chocolate cake before). In
the vid, sometimes they tell you the ingredients, and sometimes you have to
figure it out, but the technique is very
clear and helpful for your first time with lava cake.
In another version, posted
on the Internet with somewhat different ingredient amounts (four eggs or seven
eggs?), the recipe gives a different cooking temperature. What’s with that???
Anyway, here’s the version
of Lava Cake I ended up with. I don’t know about the others with different
amounts of ingredients and different cooking temps, but I can assure you this
one works beautifully!
Chocolate Lava Cake (serves 6)
6 tablespoons butter
6 ounces best quality chocolate
(Ghiradelli), ½ 85% cacao & ½ 60% cacao
¾ cup sugar
4 eggs
¼ cup flour
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Butter or spray 6 ramekins with butter-flavored, non-stick cooking spray. Place
ramekins on sturdy baking pan.
Put butter and chocolate in
a double boiler and stir gently with spatula until all chocolate is melted into
the butter. Remove from heat while mixing other ingredients.
Put sugar in a small bowl.
Crack in one egg and whisk until the egg/sugar mixture turns lemon yellow. Add
in one more egg and whisk again. Continue with remaining eggs, always whisking
thoroughly after each addition. This will take several minutes. Don’t rush it.
Add flour and thoroughly incorporate
into the egg/sugar mixture.
Slowly pour chocolate
mixture into sugar mixture, whisking completely after each addition.
Distribute batter among the
ramekins. After filling, shake or tap each ramekin on the baking pan several
times before putting into oven.
Bake for 14 minutes. Remove
from oven and immediately serve in the ramekin, or wait a couple of minutes,
and up end each on small dishes to serve upside down. The lava cake right out
of the oven will look molten-y. It is done even if it doesn’t look it to you. The
top will look like regular chocolate cake if served upside down out of the
ramekin.
You can add sprinkled
powdered sugar, ice cream, or whipped cream if you like.
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DH’s Rating: 5 Tongues Up As
expected. Warm, deep, dark chocolate. What’s not to love? Because it’s so
rich, it should be served after a lighter meal. Sort of like a reward after
eating your stir fry veggies. “Very chocolatey. Glad it’s so small,” DH said.
Yep, the best things are in little packages.
If you liked
this recipe, I’d really appreciate you spreading the word on your social
media outlets. Here are some pre-made Twitter and Facebook posts you can use
or modify.
Twitter:
#recipe for you-won’t-believe-how-easy chocolate lava cake. Check out the
post by @good2tweat at http://bit.ly/2lN9AHc
Facebook:
Do you love chocolate lava cake/molten chocolate cake? Find out how easy it
is to do them at home. See Sharon Arthur Moore’s blog, Parsley, Sage, and
Rosemary Time at http://sharonarthurmoore.blogspot.com/2017/02/month-of-few-ingredients-melt-your.html
Two more recipes to look at:
https://cruiseline.com/advice/before-you-cruise/what-to-know/carnival-cruise-lines-warm-chocolate-melting-cake-recipe
http://www.cruisin.me/info/carnival-cruise-lines/food-recipes/warm-chocolate-melting-cake.php
A reminder:
House rules for what counts as an ingredient:
Salt and pepper are not ingredients.
Oil is not an ingredient when it’s for the cooking
pan, not the recipe.
Water is not an ingredient.
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