There are a million recipes out there for Molten Lava Cakes. I’ve tried tons of different ones and honestly I’ve never had a bad one. I mean, how can anything that looks like this not be good?! This particular recipe I got from my beautiful, intelligent, and outrageously talented sister-in-law Emily. (You know, since this week we’re sucking up to our in-laws and I can’t let Kate upstage me.) Can you believe I actually have THREE sister-in-laws named Emily?? For the record they are all beautiful, intelligent, and outrageously talented 🙂 This particular one happens to be married to my brother Nate and I love her.
I used to make mini chocolate souffles a lot, but these are so much easier and they turn out every time so I’ve bagged teh souffles. Seriously, you can whip these suckers up in less than 5 minutes and be eating them shortly after that. So easy, so impressive, and so so good.
And since I know at least one person will ask- yes you need to use bittersweet chocolate! Remember you’re adding sugar too and these are very rich as is. Adding a sweet chocolate like milk or semi will be a little overkill. Besides bittersweet chocolate is my favorite! Live on the wild side.
Individual Molten Lava Cakes
3 large eggs
1/4 t salt
8 oz bittersweet chocolate*, melted
powdered sugar for dusting
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. To prepare pans, use your fingers (or the butter wrapper) to rub butter in the muffin tins or ramekins. Sprinkle in some granulated sugar to coat the entire inner surface and tap out any extra discard.
The cute heart-shaped ramekins I used are from Michael’s craft Store. They come in pink, white, and red and they’re $1 each. When I was in the store the other day I heard them calling out, “Saaaaara, buuuuuy us, buuuuy us…” and who am I to argue with talking ramekins??
Mmmm….gooey chocolate. Don’t you wish you could stick your finger in that?
These little babies are rich, so definitely have some whipped cream, or some ice cream to go with it. Definitely a Valentine-Worthy dessert!
Looks fabulous, thanks! Did I miss what size ramekins you use? Thanks once more & have a Happy New Year! Regards. Chuck.
I just used regular, 6-8 ounce ramekins (I have some of both) just watch the cooking time if you use anything smaller or larger. Enjoy!
these look extremely good! do they taste anything like the ones from Chilli’s?? Thanks! (:
Kami- these are less gooey than Chilies- these are more of almost a fudge inside, whereas the chilis ones have more of a sauce in the middle. Both are yummy!
Made this recipe for my chocoholic husband’s birthday and it came out perfectly! Thank you for sharing!!
Sara,
Can we make these in mini-muffin pans? If so, how long would you suggest baking them? I have a large dinner party coming up (20 guests) and wanted to end with more of a mini dessert rather than a full size dessert.
Thanks.
I suppose you probably could, but you’d want to use really sturdy liners. You might want to give it a test run first!
I made these this afternoon and I may never make brownies again! They were wonderful! Will be making these again when I need a quick Chocolate fix! Plus they are easy to share with friends & neighbors!
Just finished eating these. I made the batter this afternoon (adding some decaf instant coffee to make them extra rich), took them out of the fridge just as we sat down to dinner, baked and let them rest during dinner, and they were perfect by dessert! We scarfed down dinner because we were so excited for dessert:) Thank you for another great recipe!
Hey Sara! 🙂 What do you mean by “real” butter. When I bake I often use unsalted butter. So do you mean “real” as in regular salted butter? Or “real” as in, don’t use margarine? Either way, I’d love to know what kind of butter you used in this recipe. Having company this weekend and can’t wait to make them!
Hi, Raquel! We just mean no margarine. Salted or unsalted butter is totally your preference (although Sara and I always use salted butter).
Thanks Kate! They are in the oven now 🙂 Can’t wait to indulge!
Made these again tonight- I’ve been saving up all my weekly WW points all week just so that I could enjoy these on Sunday night! It was my reward for being so good- and as usual, they were worth it 🙂
I just made now nd i vl keep on making this dish. This dish was tasty nd sweety
i make this dish it was very tasty and delicious
Do you think this would work in a 1/2 pint mason jar? I’m making teacher gifts for the end of year and thought this would be a cute idea.
Ya, that would probably work, although I’ve never eaten these at room temp! But I would think they’d cook up just fine.
Thanks, if I end up doing this I’ll tell you how they turn out.
Lisa did they work? I am throwing a party Friday and have another 1/2 pint mason jar desert and need a chocolate one.
Made these a 2nd time using muffin pan and only making 4 instead of 6…turned out perfectly. Husband LOVES the warm chocolate melting cake on the Carinval cruises, so he was really happy with these.
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/208539_526921314279_97800024_30790448_4959049_n.jpg
This was so delicious. I think that I quartered it, and then I put into a mug for a single serving.
Just made these today…I also used semi-sweet chocolate, since that’s what I had on hand, and still used the 1/3 c of sugar…tasted just fine to me, but I reallllllllllly like sweets and chocolate 🙂
Only problem for me was they cooked up too well (I used a muffin tin and probably could have made 4 or 5, instead of 6 and they would have turned out perfect) but they were still delicious…just not as molten as I would have liked maybe.
Thanks for the recipe and I’ll try for 4-5 cakes next time instead! 🙂
These came out perfect! I love your site, bestest ever.
These look amazing.. I'm planning on making some tomorrow night! Love your site..
Sap–Yes.
Does cooking for 10-12 mins eliminate risk of Salmonella?
Don't know if you will get this comment or not. Those look so good! I also wanted to say that my name is Emily and I have 2 sisters in law who are also Emily. It gets kind of confusing when we are all together.
well it's really just the middle that's gooey, so the rest will be rich and cake-like. Sounds like you just overcooked them a bit too long, don't leave them in quite as long next time and you should be good!
I did these lovely cakes yesterday with my friend, and we were amazed how fast they took to prepare and bake!
We baked them in a 6 muffin pan, but the batter only made 5, and we put it at a 195 degrees Celcius oven for 10 min at first, but the top was still liquid, so we left them for 5 more min, and when we took them out, they looked good but a bit puffed on the top, so we left them for about 20 min as we had dinner and then had them.
When we ate them, the top only was molten while the rest was more cake like. I was trying to see what went wrong, so I thought of asking you: Is it the heat of the oven (should it have been more)? Should we not have left them for 5 extra minute and took them out and let them rest outside? OR should we not have left them for 20 min outside and ate them right after 10 min?
The hubby and I made these last night- it was a fun recipe to make together! I melted the chocolate and prepared the pans while he mixed the ingredients- then we both enjoyed the spoils of our hard work 🙂
I only had semi-sweet chocolate on hand, so I reduced the sugar in the recipe to 1/4 cup, and it turned out fine, not too sweet at all. I loved the crunchy sugar crust on the outside from lining the cups with sugar! Now I need to go find some of those adorable ramekins! Maybe Michael's will have them for Valentine's day again this year…
I just made these tonight for my sister's birthday and they were SUPER yummy. I made them ahead of time, and put them in the fridge and they still turned out perfect. Great recipe!
Marie- not a dumb question at all! They can definitely be made ahead of time and refrigerated before baking. I haven't tried freezing this recipe, but I've made other similar ones and frozen them (unbaked) and then baked from frozen and they've worked great. So chances are it would work!
so this might be a dumb question, but do you know if these can be made ahead of time and then re-heated or maybe frozen and then heated? thanks -marie
p.s. I recently discovered this site and it is now my offical #1 recipe site! There are so many recipes out there and i make them and they are either gross, dont work, or nothing special, but EVERYTHING ive tried from this site so far is AWESOME! LOVE IT!
I tried these out the other day, and I just wanted to add my two cents. If you have leftovers (unlikely, I know, but there were only two of us…), the leftovers refrigerate great! Then we just popped them in the microwave for 25 seconds, and it was just like they were freshly baked. Amazing!
Those molten lava cakes look great! I like the heart shaped ramekins!
I made these for our dinner guests on Saturday night to rave reviews! They were so easy and took only about 30 mins start to finish. I will definitely be making this again – thanks!
Thanks Sara!
Anne, it will make 6 muffin cups, or I get 4 ramekins. It depends on the ramekin size though, mine are a bit larger.