Molten Chocolate Cakes
Soft-centred lava cakes. Molten chocolate cakes have a firm edge and a runny centre. The rival origin stories, why timing matters, and our recipe for four lava cakes.
A chocolate fondant: FotoosVanRobin from Netherlands, CC BY-SA 2.0
Who invented it?
French chef Michel Bras developed a chocolate coulant with a frozen ganache centre in 1981. In New York, chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten says he pulled a chocolate sponge out of the oven too early in 1987, found the runny middle delicious and put it on his menu. Either way, by the 1990s molten cakes were on restaurant menus everywhere.
How it works
The batter is mostly chocolate, butter, eggs and sugar with very little flour. In a hot oven the outside sets quickly while the centre stays barely cooked and liquid. A minute too long and you get a delicious but ordinary small cake; a minute too short and it collapses. Ovens vary, so bake one test cake first.
Make-ahead trick
You can fill the ramekins up to a day ahead, cover and refrigerate them. Add one or two minutes to the baking time when baking straight from the fridge. Some cooks hide a cube of frozen ganache in the centre of each cake to guarantee a molten middle.
Serving
Run a knife around the edge and turn out onto a plate after one minute of resting, or serve in the ramekin. Vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, berries or a dusting of icing sugar are classic partners. Because the centre is not fully cooked, use fresh eggs and serve the cakes right away.
Make Molten Chocolate Cakes at home
Ingredients
- 115 g dark chocolate (60 to 70 percent), chopped
- 115 g unsalted butter, plus extra for the ramekins
- 2 large eggs plus 2 egg yolks
- 50 g caster sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- Cocoa powder for dusting the ramekins
Method
- Heat the oven to 220 C (425 F). Butter four 180 ml ramekins and dust with cocoa.
- Melt the chocolate and butter together gently, then cool slightly.
- Whisk the eggs, yolks, sugar and salt until pale and thick, about 3 minutes.
- Fold the chocolate into the eggs, then fold in the flour until just combined.
- Divide between the ramekins and bake on a tray for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are set and the centres wobble.
- Rest for 1 minute, loosen the edges, turn out and serve immediately.
- A chocolate fondant: FotoosVanRobin from Netherlands, CC BY-SA 2.0
Text written by Chocolate Era.
