Molten Lava Cakes

Author & Photographer: Veronica Chang

Me, while baking:

These cakes are so small. They can’t be that bad for me. Let me indulge myself and eat more.

I am a Fool.

With social distancing and stay-at-home orders in effect, everyone and their grandmas have been baking up a storm. The baking aisles of grocery stores are completely empty—finding yeast is like finding the Holy Grail.

Despite my relative inability to make edible food, I too have found myself searching up recipes to both kill time and satisfy a serious craving for sweet things. I discovered this recipe on my quest for an easy homemade dessert: rather than ramekins, the recipe uses a muffin tin to bake miniature molten lava chocolate cakes. All the mixing can also be done with either a fork or spatula, which is great if you dislike cleaning (me) or don’t own an electric mixer.

I made a couple changes to the recipe and note my process below.You could also sift the flour and sugar before adding to prevent the mixture from being lumpy. Another twist could also be to sub in bourbon or cognac for the ground coffee (or maybe that’s just the alcoholic in me talking).

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Recipe yields around 9 small cakes

Prep time: 25 min

Cook time: 7-9 min

Ingredients:

• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (or other semisweet chocolate) 

• ½ cup unsalted butter

• 2 eggs

• 2 egg yolks

• ½ cup powdered sugar, plus a bit for dusting 

• ¼ cup cake flour 

• ¼ tsp salt

• 1 tbsp ground coffee beans or instant coffee powder

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Butter the cups of a muffin tin (or spray with non-stick baking spray).

2. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate together on low heat. Stir together until the mixture is completely melted. 

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and egg yolks. 

4. Add the sugar, flour, salt, and ground coffee, and whisk again until mostly mixed (a few small lumps can remain).

5. Using a spatula, stir in the melted chocolate until thoroughly combined. 

6. Scoop the mixture into the muffin tin. Each cup of the tin should be around ¾ full. 

7. Put cakes in oven and like… watch them… I guess… 

8. Bake until cakes have formed a crust on top (around 7 minutes) and remove from oven.

9. Let cakes cool for 2 minutes, then invert muffin tin onto cutting board, using a spoon to help remove the cakes from the pan. 

10. Dust powdered sugar atop the cakes to make them look pretty (optional). 

11. Enjoy :))