Easy to Impress Dessert Recipe - Chocolate Lava Cake

It all started from some fresh strawberries in the fridge - so juicy and sweet! And I just wish there was a chocolate fountain nearby. >_<


A trail of thoughts followed and then I suddenly crave for that awesome dessert from Chili's - Molten Chocolate Cake! The warm chocolate lava when eaten together with cold vanilla ice cream is just so heavenly. One has to try this dessert at least once in a lifetime!

Source: Chilli's Malaysia Official Facebook Fan Page

Chocolate Lava Cake or Molten Chocolate Cake is served warm so that when it is cut in the middle, the warm chocolate oozes out. Combine the warm chocolate lava with some creamy vanilla ice-cream and fresh strawberries, it will sure send you to dessert heaven. :)

You have to try this recipe out, from my favourite food blog, Noobcook - Chocolate Lava Cake Recipe. It's super easy and sure to impress your guests! What I love about this dessert is that it is superrr easy (Super easy. Did I just say super easy again? Yea, I just want to get that into your head! lol) and it can be prepared earlier in the day. Just pop it into the oven for some sweet ending after a good dinner. Perfect and definitely, failproof! You absolutely cannot go wrong with chocolate, strawberries and ice cream! :P

So, here's the step-by-step recipe to make 3 awesome 6-oz ramekin chocolate lava cakes:

Ingredients
- 100g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa), cut to small cubes
- 100g unsalted butter, cut to small cubes
- 2 eggs
- 50g caster sugar
- 20g self-raising flour
- fresh strawberries
- vanilla ice cream

Opps, I forgot to include those fresh juicy strawberries in the photo above! >_<

Step 1: Melt chocolate and butter using a double boiler. What I did was I placed a small pot over a larger pot of hot simmering water and keep stirring until it combines to become this rich, glossy chocolate sauce. It's already looking yummm at this point, but thou shalt not fall into temptation! >_<

Step 2: Using a electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar until it becomes white and frothy. I set the mixer to medium speed and took me quite awhile to get this result. So be patient! >_<

Step 3: Pour the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Slowly fold in the self-raising flour and combine well using a spatula. Set aside.

Step 4: Grease the ramekins with some butter. Optional: I added some caster sugar so that my cake has a bit of crisp on the outside.

Step 5: Fill the ramekin to 3/4 full with the chocolate mixture and bake in a preheated oven of 180C for at least 10mins (refer Note below). Optional: I baked it bain-marie style to prevent the top from cracking. This is how mine looks after baking for 10mins.

Note: The timing very much depends on the temperature of your mixture and your oven. But you can start with 10mins, and then take it out and check before deciding to bake it more or not. Because it's cold where I live in now, so I suspect the chocolate mixture was too cold to start with. So, my first ramekin took me about 15mins and it was under-baked (means less cake and lots of chocolate lava. No complain though! Haha). The second night, after I took the ramekins out from the fridge, I decided to put it in the microwave for 30sec until the mixture is runny again. Pop it into the oven for about 11mins and it came out perfect! So yea, it's all about trial and error, so experiment!


Step 6: Using a serving plate face down, put on top of the ramekin, turn it over and your lava cake will slide out perfectly on the plate. Add your strawberries and some vanilla ice cream on the side before serving.

As you can see, I had more chocolate lava than cake! Lol. But still sooooo yum. :P

And there you go, the perfect, easiest dessert to impress your loved ones! :)

See you at dessert heaven! :)