Recipe

Chocolate Lava Cake

Name: Chocolate Lava Cake
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 32 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 125 g unsalted butter, chopped, plus extra soft butter for greasing; 1 tbsp cocoa powder, for dusting the moulds; 125 g dark chocolate (50 to 70% cocoa solids), chopped; 2 eggs, at room temperature; 2 egg yolks, at room temperature; 100 g caster sugar (½ cup less 1 tbsp); 2 tbsp plain flour (about 15 g); Pinch of salt; Ice cream, cream or berries, to serve

Individual chocolate puddings with a set outside and a molten, runny middle. Five ingredients, 12 minutes in the oven, and they can be made ahead.

Serves 4
Prep 20 min
Cook 12 min

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Chocolate Lava Cake — Photo: tehzeebkazmii / Pixabay

Crack the top with a spoon and warm chocolate pours out onto the plate.

Recipe inspiration

Dinner party, date night, birthday for someone who loves chocolate more than cake. Lava cakes do the one thing a home dessert rarely does: they arrive hot, at the exact moment you want them, with no last-minute work. The batter sits in the fridge all day and the oven does 12 minutes while you clear plates.

They are also a good first step into baking by eye. No skewer test, no cake tin to line: you learn what "set at the edge, wobbly in the middle" looks like, and that skill carries over to cheesecakes, custards and brownies.

About this dish

Two French chefs claim it. Michel Bras says he created his chocolat coulant ("flowing chocolate") in 1981, after two years of work, inspired by a family warming up with hot chocolate after skiing; his version hides a frozen ganache core inside a rice-starch dough. Jean-Georges Vongerichten says he found his in New York in 1987, when he pulled a chocolate sponge out of the oven too soon and the runny centre tasted better than the cake. His is the one you see on restaurant menus, because it is easy to repeat: ordinary batter, a very hot oven, a short bake. This recipe is his kind.

It also goes by chocolate fondant, molten chocolate cake and mi-cuit ("half-cooked"). Done right, the outside is a thin, soft sponge with a faintly crisp, cracked top, and the inside is thick, warm chocolate sauce, somewhere between a brownie and a hot ganache. The flavour is mostly the chocolate you buy, so buy one you would eat.

Additions & substitutions

Hidden centre: push a square of white chocolate, a teaspoon of peanut butter, salted caramel or a frozen ball of Nutella into the middle of each before baking. It melts into a second sauce.
Coffee or orange: stir 1 tsp instant coffee, or the finely grated zest of an orange, into the melted chocolate. Both make chocolate taste more of itself.
Gluten-free: swap the flour for 2 tbsp almond meal or a gluten-free plain flour blend. With so little flour, nobody can tell.
Dairy-free: dairy-free block butter and dairy-free dark chocolate. The eggs stay.
Darker or milder: up to 70% cocoa solids works as written. Above that, add 1 tbsp more sugar. Milk chocolate sets softer: bake 1 minute less and expect a looser centre.
Vegan: this one does not convert. Eggs set the outside around the runny middle, and no simple swap does that job. Choose a recipe written vegan from the start.

Expert tips

Shopping

Use a block of eating chocolate, 50 to 70% cocoa solids, not chocolate chips. Chips contain stabilisers to hold their shape and melt into a thicker, duller centre.
Moulds: 175 to 200 ml ramekins or metal dariole moulds. Metal heats faster and turns out more cleanly; ceramic needs the extra minute.
Room-temperature eggs whisk to more volume. Sit them in warm tap water for 5 minutes if you forgot.

Preparing

Grease upward, then dust with cocoa. Upward brush strokes give the sponge something to climb; cocoa instead of flour keeps the outside dark. A mould greased badly is the main reason a fondant collapses on the plate.
Whisk the eggs and sugar properly, 3 to 4 minutes, until pale, thick and almost doubled. That trapped air is what holds the shell up; under-whisk and you get a flat, dense puck.
Fold, don't stir. Big, slow sweeps with a spatula from the bottom up, just until no streaks remain. Beating knocks the air back out.
Bake one test pudding first for guests. Ovens vary by a minute or two either way, and that minute is the difference between lava and cake.
Read it, don't time it. The top is risen, firm and dull at the edges, cracked, just pulling away from the sides; the middle 3 cm still jiggles when you nudge the tray.

Make ahead, or for a crowd

Fill the moulds, cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours. Bake straight from the fridge for 13 to 15 minutes.
Filled moulds freeze for up to a month. Bake from frozen at the same temperature for 16 to 18 minutes.
For 8, double everything and bake on two hot trays, swapping shelves halfway. Turn out and serve four at a time so none sit.

Serving suggestions

Cold against hot: vanilla ice cream, crème fraîche or lightly whipped cream.
Something sharp: fresh raspberries or a spoon of raspberry coulis cuts through the richness.
A dusting of icing sugar and a few flakes of sea salt.
For a menu, follow something light: a pasta salad or winter vegetable soup leaves room.