Molten Chocolate Cake, Nearly

Nearly molten chocolate cake. Extremely tasty with a fudge-like center.

The thought of a warm piece of chocolate cake supplying its own chocolate sauce makes me feel a bit dreamy, especially when said cake is served with vanilla ice cream.

You'd think it would be a bit of a toughie, right? Absolutely wrong. Molten chocolate cake is quick and easy, the only tricky part is getting the timing down. This is not something you pour over for hours, transferring this melted thing from the stove, whisking a bit in this bowl here then mixing it back in on the stove, letting it chill, adding these three things and whipping, blah blah blah...  Okay, maybe there is a little bit of that, but it really doesn't take much time. The thing that took the longest for me was preheating the oven and, of course, waiting a couple minutes so I wouldn't burn my tongue.

Molten Chocolate Cake
Adapted from allrecipes.com


Yields 2 ramekins

2 ounces (2 squares)  Baker's dark bittersweet chocolate
3 T + 1 tsp (50g)  unsalted butter
1/2 C  powdered sugar
2 T + 2 tsp  cake flour
1  egg
1  egg yolk
butter or shortening for greasing
flour or cocoa powder for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 425F (220C).
2. Grease and dust each ramekin with flour or cocoa powder (grease it well, this is important!).
3. Heat the butter and chocolate on medium in the microwave until melted. Whisk together.
4. Add the sugar and flour and mix well.
5. Add the egg and yolk and mix well.
6. Divide the mixture between two ramekins and bake about 8 minutes, or until the tops look just set.
7. Remove from the oven and let sit for a minute or two.
8. Run a knife around the edges and carefully invert onto dishes.
9. Garnish with powdered sugar and enjoy (possibly with a big heaping pile of vanilla ice cream).
10. Keep enjoying! It's really good!

Molten Chocolate Cake Reflections

Molten chocolate cake before being attacked by spoons and vanilla ice cream.

My middle wasn't quite molten. I had walked away and left them all alone for eight and a half minutes, which gave me a fudge-like center. WATCH THESE LIKE A HAWK. You know, for the best lava-flow-of-chocolate results.

I gave it a try with white chocolate, adding a splash of almond extract and a tablespoon of Greek yogurt, and boy did that sucker live up to the word molten. The almond extract was unnecessary and overpowered the white chocolate, so leave that out or use vanilla. I have yet to encounter a grocery store white chocolate that melts smoothly all on it's own, but it worked fine with butter.

This was done on the spur of the moment, another one of those, "Well gosh, it's kind of gloomy out. What can I whip up for a cheer up?" That's why there aren't many pictures and also why the light quality is terrible (thanks, night time). Maybe I'll give this another shot later this week and update with better pictures.

[UPDATE 15JUN2010]

I made it! I really did! It's pretty tastetastic and full of oozing chocolate wonder! Check it out here.