Sometimes you have a dessert craving at a time when going to the store for ingredients just isn't convenient. When that happens, my solution is to search the web for a recipe that is quick, simple to make, and uses ingredients that I already have on hand. I mean, when you need dessert, you need dessert. Right?
When this situation occurred in our house one night a few weeks ago, I consulted a cookbook or two. Nothing. So next I checked one of my favorite recipe sources: The Pioneer Woman Cooks! I quickly found a recipe that fit my requirements and that I knew we would LOVE.
Oh, man. I was right. Big time. Yummy. And easy.
The recipe is Molten Chocolate Lava Cake. If you like gooey chocolate, you will think you've died and gone to heaven. And that heaven is coated in chocolate. Ree actually got the recipe from Brandielle on The Tasty Kitchen recipe site. If you read the comments there you'll quickly see that everyone who has tried it loves it just as much as I do!
These little gems are the same thing that our family used to get at Chili's (in a bigger version) that we always called Chocolate Volcano Cake. The warm gooey chocolate middle runs out and makes a wonderfully rich cake that goes especially well with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Now that I've given proper credit, I'm going to go ahead and share the recipe here with you. You know, to make it really easy for you so you'll have no excuses not to try it! And because I love y'all so much. :)
Chocolate Volcano Cake
- 4 pieces (squares) Semi-sweet Baking Chocolate
- ½ cups Butter
- 1 cup Powdered Sugar
- 2 whole Eggs
- 2 whole Egg Yolks
- 6 Tablespoons Flour
How-to:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Spray 4 custard cups with Pam and place on cookie sheet.
- Microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl on high for about 1 minute, until butter is melted. whisk until chocolate is also melted.
- Stir in sugar until well blended. Whisk in eggs and egg yolks. Stir in flour.
- Divide between cups.
- Bake 13-14 minutes until sides are firm and center is soft. Let stand 1 minute.
Now some notes from me:
- One chocolate square = 1 ounce of chocolate. I never have chocolate baking squares on hand so I have made this every time with semi-sweet chocolate chips. It works great! I just use my kitchen scale to weigh out 4 ounces and do everything else as instructed.
- This recipe is VERY easy to divide in half. I do not recommend making the full recipe for just two people. It's just too rich to each more than one cake each. :)
- It's also easy to adapt for an odd number...half the recipe divides nicely between 3 cups for 3 people; a full recipe divides nicely for 6 people. Each person just gets an ever-so-slightly smaller amount.
- The original recipe calls for making your own whipped cream. Although that's delightful, I also never have heavy whipping cream just sitting around. We've used Cool Whip as well as the real stuff in a spray can...still delicious. And based on my experience at Chili's, it would be good with vanilla ice cream, too.
- Getting the cakes out of the ramekins/custard dishes is an art. One that I haven't really perfected. Oh well! Messy volcanoes taste just as good as perfect ones. :)
Now, go forth and make cake! You won't regret it!
