These simple chocolate lava cakes are a perfect dessert for any occasion. With a rich and gooey chocolate center, they are vanilla ice cream’s soulmate.
These lava cakes have a gooey chocolate center, that when served hot with a scoop of ice cream, make an unforgettable sweet treat.
The rich romantic results you get from this chocolatey dessert will have you questioning how easy this recipe was. You can throw these together in the blink of an eye, and get award winning style results from inside any at home kitchen. They really are the perfect decadent dessert.
Easy lava cakes have been a go to dessert for my family and I for years. They really are perfect for any occasion, from movie nights with kids, to romantic valentines dinners, or even treating just yourself to a sweet treat. This recipe will be one to remember.
This recipe yields 4-6 cakes, depending if you use large ramekins, or just classic muffin tins.
If you end up with more cakes than yourself and friends can eat, no problem, simply freeze extras to be easily reheated and enjoyed later. Just reheat the frozen cakes in a conventional oven or microwave, whichever you prefer.
- Microwave depending on wattage, 45-55 seconds.
- Conventional oven on 375° for 15 to 17 minutes.
Simple Lava Cake Ingredients
- Salted Butter: About 5 ounces or 1 ¼ sticks. We use this to melt together with our chocolate, as well as a little bit to grease our muffin tins/ramekins.
- Chocolate: Around ¾ of a cup total. You can use either chocolate chip or chocolate bar, the higher the quality for either, the better. For chocolate chips, “bittersweet” will give you the most rich dark chocolate flavor, “semi-sweet” will still give you a rich chocolate flavor, although just a tad bit more mild, and milk chocolate can be used for a much less rich result. If using a whole chocolate bar, be sure to chop it up to a fine texture for easier melting.
- Eggs: We will need 2 egg yolks and 2 whole eggs.
- Sugar: ¼ of a cup of sugar.
- Flour: 2 tablespoons of flour. All purpose flour, whole wheat flour, and gluten free flour, will all work great.
- Salt: Just a pinch to make your chocolate flavors pop! Trust me <3
Easy Lava Cakes
- Total Time: ~25 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 cakes
Description
Make these molten chocolate lava cake, they are so simple and easy. Perfect for sharing with the people you love.
Ingredients
- 1 stick (4 ounces) salted butter, plus more for greasing the pan
- 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (chopped or chocolate chips)
- 2 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons flour, plus more for dusting the ramekins/ muffin tins
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F. Butter and lightly flour four 6-ounce ramekins, or six muffin tins. Tap out excess flour. If using muffin tins, I recommend combining a couple of tablespoons of melted butter with a roughly equal amount of flour. Apply a thin, even layer on each muffin tin to prevent sticking. You can also use parchment paper if you’d like.
- In a microwave safe bowl, combine cubed stick of butter and chocolate. Microwave in 30 second increments, mixing in between, until everything is melted and combined. It should only take about 1-1.5 minutes total.
- In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to beat eggs with egg yolks, sugar, and salt at high speed until thickened and pale. You can also do this with a regular whisk.
- Fold melted chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Add the two tablespoons of flour and gently mix in.
- Pour batter into four ramekins or six muffin tins.
- If using muffin tins, bake for about 6-8 minutes. If using ramekins, bake for about 10-12 minutes. Or, bake until sides of cakes are firm but centers are soft.
- Let cakes cool for 1 minute, then cover each with a plate and carefully flip the cakes or muffin pan over, let stand for 10 seconds, and then unmold. Serve immediately with ice cream, citrus whipped cream, berries, whatever you like.
Notes
Baking Time Tip:It depends on your oven but they could be done cooking in 6 minutes and then you can eat them right away. Like what other cake dessert is ready to eat after baking for 6 minutes?? Brownies take like 40 minutes! Best to be checking on them and taking them out early rather than late. You want the center gooey!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes max
- Category: dessert
