Serious about chocolate desserts? Then this easy Chocolate Lava Cake recipe is going to blow you away. They’re wonderfully chocolatey and melt in your mouth. A cross between a souffle and a cake these individual little puddings are simple to make, look impressive and cook in just 12 minutes.
These innocent-looking puddings make a special treat. They are a gift to the world of chocolate puddings and desserts. Break into the sponge-like exterior, and inside you will find a pool of the most delicious chocolate fondant. This delicious, molten centre is how it got its name of lava cake. It does have other names, such as Molten chocolate pudding and melting chocolate pudding, chocolate molten lava cakes. But, whatever you wish to call them if you’re a chocolate lover you should try these at least once.
Have I mentioned how easy they are to make?
Ingredients
The precise ingredients and the exact amounts are listed in the recipe below. These are just a few extra notes to help.
- chocolate – use dark chocolate with at least 75% cocoa solids to achieve the deepest chocolate flavours.
- cocoa – this is added to increase the chocolate flavour even more. Don’t substitute drinking chocolate as that may contain added sugar and milk powder which will upset the balance of flavours in the recipe.
- eggs – these give the spongy outside its lightness. Use large eggs and use at room temperature for the best results.
- plain flour – also known as all-purpose four.
- sugar – as this is a sponge, cater sugar will give you the best results.
- butter – this may be substituted for a non-dairy margarine and is just as successful. The flavour may differ slightly but these delicious chocolate molten lava cakes are so good I suspect you won’t even notice the difference.
- vanilla extract – for the best flavour always use an ‘extract’ in your baking not an essence. This acts as a flavour enhancer in this recipe.
Making the Easy Chocolate Lava Cake
This is a doddle, just follow the instructions below. Chocolate lava cakes are incredibly simple, there are no complicated processes to master and very quickly you’ll have an impressive-looking dessert.
Line the ramekin dishes
These little puddings can be made in ramekins or in a muffin tin.
- Bake in ramekin dishes
- Butter or oil the sides and base of the ramekins and use little rounds of baking parchment paper to fit the bases to be confident of safely removing the puddings from the dish once they’re cooked. Draw around the bases of the ramekin dishes to make a template.
- Fill the ramekins with the mixture to just below the inside lip of the dish.
- Bake in a muffin tin
- butter or oil the cups of the muffin tin. Silicone moulds are brilliant for this. Fill the muffin cups with the mixture to 3/4 full. As the cakes will be smaller bake them for between 8 to ten minutes. The top should be firm but the centres should still appear soft and squidgy.
How do I know that the Chocolate Lava Cakes are done?
The whole thing about Chocolate Lava Cakes is that they have a pool of liquid chocolate sauce that flows out once you cut into it. Lava, like a volcano, get it? So, judging ‘doneness’ is a little different from deciding when a sponge cake is done. With these molten chocolate puddings, you just need the tops to be firm. At the end of the baking time, you want the tops to look firm. Inside needs to be soft and slightly squidgy.
Alternatives to this Chocolate Lava Cake Recipe
It is quite easy to turn this recipe into a Chocolate Orange Lava Cake. It just requires the addition of the orange flavours.
To make a Chocolate Orange Lava Cake, add a little orange zest and a 1/2 teaspoon of orange extract flavouring. The puddings will still look dark and chocolatey but they will also taste beautifully of orange just like famous chocolate oranges.
Serving Chocolate Lava Cake Dessert
We eat these delicious chocolate puddings at weekends or when friends come over to eat. They feel and look quite special even though they don’t take a ton of time and they’re pretty easy to make.
As always there are quite a few options. These are a few of our ideas to get you started.
- Dust with icing sugar for a really simple presentation.
- Single Cream – dairy or non-dairy types. The contrast in the colours looks really pretty too.
- Add a few berries – strawberries and raspberries go really well with these flavours.
- Ice Cream – a plain vanilla ice cream is delicious. It melts beautifully into the chocolate sauce that spills from inside the pudding.
- Yoghurt – plain or flavoured Greek-style yoghurts go really well.
Storing Easy Chocolate Lava Cakes
These Chocolate Lava Cakes are at their absolute best when eaten fresh from the oven. So, what do you do if you need to store these little puddings?
- Unbaked mixture – Store the unbaked mixture in the fridge for up to a day and bake when you’re are ready to eat them warm from the oven.
- Freeze the uncooked mixture in the ramekin dishes and bake from frozen for 16 minutes.
- Baked Puddings These will last for 2 days in the fridge but benefit from warming in the microwave ( a 30-second blast of heat) or oven for 5 minutes to restore the delicious, squidgy centres.
Your turn – What kind of pudding recipes would like to see here? Quick? Traditional? or just plain indulgent? Tell me in the comments and I’ll see what I can do.
If you try and enjoy these puddings I’d love to know. Did you make them as part of a celebration or just because you’re a chocolate lover? If you’ve any photo’s I’d love to see how you got on…
If you like this then you make like some of our other recipes
- Banana Loaf Cake
- Easy and Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
- Easy Vegan Blueberry Muffins
- How to make Chocolate Orange Brownies
- Soft and Chewy Oat and Raisin Cookies
- Rice Pudding with Coconut Milk
- Castella Cake
- Banana and Date Loaf Cake
- Rock Cakes
- Blueberry Crumble
- Blueberry Orange Muffins
- Double Chocolate Chip Muffins
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Easy Chocolate Lava Cake recipe
Equipment
- mixing bowl
- fork, measuring cups and spoons
- baking tray
- 4 ramekins or muffin tin
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup chocolate dark – 75% cocoa solids
- 1/3 cup sugar caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 tablespoon cocoa
- 1/2 cup butter or non-dairy margarine
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup plain flour all-purpose flour
Optional for Chocolate Orange Lava Cakes
- 1 orange grated zest
- 1/2 teaspoon orange extract optional but worth it
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 400 F/200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.
- Butter or oil the (4) ramekin dishes, sides and base. Line the bases with baking parchment. (draw around the bases and cut out neat little circles – makes life easier when it comes to serving the puddings.)
- Break the chocolate into a bowl and add the butter. Melt them together in the microwave using short 30 second blasts until it is all melted. Otherwise, melt in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of hot water. (Caution: do not let water or steam come into contact with the chocolate or it will spoil.)
- Set the melted butter chocolate mixture to the side to cool for a few minutes.
- Break the eggs into a bowl, add the sugar and whisk to combine. Add this to the melted chocolate/butter mixture and whisk. Add the flour, cocoa and vanilla extract and stir well to combine.
- Divide the mixture equally between the 4 ramekin dishes. Set the dishes on a baking tray and put in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes. If you're using a muffin tin, bake for 8 to 10 minutes.
- Cook until the tops are set but the middle still looks squidgy and molten.
Chocolate Orange Lava Cakes
- Add the grated zest of one orange and the orange extract (if using) when you add the flour to the chocolate mixture. Stir well to combine.
Notes
- Unbaked mixture – Store the unbaked mixture in the fridge for up to a day and bake when you’re are ready to eat them warm from the oven.
- Freeze the uncooked mixture in the ramekin dishes and bake from frozen for 16 minutes.
- Baked Puddings These will last for 2 days in the fridge but benefit from warming in the microwave ( a 30 second blast of heat) or oven for 5 minutes to restore the delicious, squidgy centres.
Nutrition
Why not Pin this Easy Chocolate Lava Cake recipe for later?
I love recipes that use dark chocolate and can easily be made dairy free! This is amazing ❤️.
Glad you like it.
Lava cake is such a luxurious dessert. I wish I was brave enough to try making it.
It isn’t difficult at even if you don’t have a lot of baking experience. They’re really worth a try.
Oooh! Someday I’ll attempt this. Your lava cake looks amazing!
I hope you like them.
This is something to enjoy when you want a quick fix of dessert!
It is really is… so quick and looks quite impressive too.
Wow, these look delicious. I never had lava cakes before. I am very much for anything with chocolate orange. I really cannot wait to try this.
They make a really special treat.
I love me some chocolate and these look amazing! ❤️
Sounded really good and easy. Hopefully the mistake I made from adding the sugar with the chocolate in the second step won’t affect it too much. Just a warning about the confusion about the sugar instead of butter which needs a bit of editing. Otherwise great recipie.