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!
Questions & Reviews
These look great, I want to try them. How many ramekins did you fill up with the recipe? Thank you!
Thank you so much for this recipe. I had house guests this week and served this to rave reviews. I was told they were restaurant worthy and this came from foodies! Easy, elegant and delicious. I garnished with fresh whipped cream and a sprig of mint. Thanks again!!!
Jodi- good to know that you liked it with semi-sweet. I know the bars can be pricey. Cooking it at a slightly higher heat probably wouldn’t hurt, but for this recipe I’d stick to how it’s written.
Sara, I made these & they are super yummy! The store I went to was out of bittersweet chocolate chips & so I bought 2 bars of bittersweet chocolate. They were pricey & I had to double the recipe for my big family so I also used semi-sweet choco. chips. I thought it worked great…In fact there was a similar recipe on the inside of the choco. bar label…they suggested baking at 425?
I just finished eating this. Mmmmmm. I used real heavy whipping cream. It was divine. I make 6 muffin tins and two ramekins with this recipe. Perfect for my family of 4 – we can all have another serving tomorrow! I love that you can throw it together within quickly and go from a chocolate craving to pure chocolate decadence in minutes. Yum!
YUM!
This is exactly what I had in mind for our Valentines Day dessert! Now I don’t have to search the internet for a recipe. Thanks!!
mmmmmm. I made molten lava cakes for my husband on our first Valentines day together. Thanks for the reminder and the recipe. I’m totally making these!
Angela,
Bittersweet chocolate is sweeter than unsweetened and not as sweet as semi-sweet. It’s actually labeled “bittersweet” and you can find it by the chocolate chips. Where I live the only brands of bittersweet chips I ever see in the stores are Ghirardelli or Guittard. If you don’t see chips, then you should for sure be able to find a bar of chocolate (usually right above the chocolate chips). And actually, a bar is easier to measure, but I usually get chips because ounce for ounce it’s cheaper.
So, my question is about the bittersweet chocolate? Something like semi-sweet chocolate chips? Or the unsweetened bakers chocolate? I feel like I should know the answer, but I just don’t! Help.
I really need to try these babies out. I have never made them. Can you believe that? I will try the ramekins. Can not go wrong with individual servings.
I agree, I have never eaten a bad one. I love the cute little heart dish that you have yours in. They look delish!!
You’re right, you really can’t go wrong with warm gooey chocolate. Looks great!
OMG These look so good. I am a sucker for chocolate and the thought of chocolate oozing out of a chocolate cake just makes me happy 🙂
Those look awesome! I love the hearts and really want some of that warm chocolate! Love your blog!
I agree – it’s hard to not like a molten cake recipe – what’s not to love with melting chocolate?
Looks delish! Better yet it sound easy!! I printed out the recipe.
Happy V-day!
~ingrid
They look yummy. I love the heart shape cups.
Uh yeah, who needs to go out on Valentine’s when you can make these things at home? Looks delicious!
Wow! thanks for the flattering words!
I actually got this recipe from a friend. But mine NEVER look as beautifully spectacular as hers – OR YOURS! Amazing Sara. Amazing.
I love these with fresh raspberries. . . MMmmmmm
And I love the new printing feature – thanks!
Oh wow, those look amazing!!
And, my sister and I are obviously related since I came to comment specifically on the “print text only” feature. Ditto what she said. I love your pictures but they just don’t translate as well onto a black and white print out. Thanks!
We just added that, nice eh? A huge thanks to 2 people. Kevin from Closet Cooking told me about that easy way to do the text only printing, and the fabulous Tae helped us work out a bunch of printing bugs we were not smart enough to figure out on our own! She added the “print this page” link at the bottom of the post, and that will print out the post in it’s entirety without all of the sidebar stuff. And it doesn’t cut-off anymore! Thanks Tae!
These look soooooo good. The chocoholic DH will love it!! The dude puts chocolate ice cream in his root beer floats and I think he’s a freak for it. But I love himi anyway.
Oh my gosh! When did you add “Print recipe text only” button! I’ve been meaning to ask you if you could add it! Thank you so much, it sure makes it a lot easier and we don’t have to use a bajillion sheets of paper to print out the recipe!
And oh yeah, this recipe looks amazing.
This is probably the seventh time I’ve been craving something, and searching for recipes, when it miraculously ends up on your site the next day 🙂 Looks delicious! Mmm mmm!
Now that’s what I’m talking about! This will go in the book on my counter of recipes I make WEEKLY!
What a perfect dessert!
I just bought a bunch of those cute little heart shaped ramekins at Michael’s last week. Wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them but they were so cute I just had to have them – now I know what I’ll do with them!
I love love molten lava cake. Our Chili’s use to have it and that was the only reason I went there but it has closed down but now I can make it at home – thanks!
Yum! I was going to use a different recipe for v-day, but I think I might use this one.
These look so good. I am wishing I had one right now!