YUMMY, SPICY MOLTEN LAVA CAKES

• November 17, 2014
• Mari Bickmore
• no comments

Lava cakes are the ultimate comfort dessert. You just cannot beat warm, chocolate, gooey….all those textures. That being said, I like a little kick in the mix, so I played with it. I really didn’t need to eat these right now. I had foot surgery in late September and haven’ been so active, and well let’s just say I started my Holiday 5-pound weight gain already, and we are just coming into the Holidays. But then that’s why they call it comfort food. I will make some New Year’s resolutions later.

In any recipe I start by getting all my ingredients together, which makes it so much easier throughout the process. I highly recommend that…plus reading the recipe all the way through. You don’t want to get into a recipe and then find out that you have to marinate it for 24 hours…and you were going to serve it in four. But I digress, for this recipe I just found out, after the fact, some very interesting cinnamon info that you will definitely want to know. I will be throwing out all my old cinnamon and only buying Ceylon cinnamon from now on (link on the sidebar).

These yummy cakes are sooooo easy and everyone will think you are a cooking genius, and don’t tell them any different. I used the 6-ounce glass ramekins that I had on hand, but I think they would look better in a souffle dish. However, the souffle’s I had were 4.5 ounce, so whatever. I made some whipped cream on the side, and my husband complained because we didn’t have vanilla ice cream. So no souffle’s and no ice cream but whatever you have is great, or even just some powdered sugar if you like…or nothing. It really could be all by itself and no one would care. Let me know if someone you serve it to doesn’t love it!

Ingredients

1/2 cup Dark chocolate chips (or 4 oz dark baking chocolate)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 Tbs. red wine (any type)
1 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted (keeps you from having lumps when you stir in/measure prior to sifting)
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
6 Tbs. flour
1/2 tsp. ground Ceylon Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. cayenne
1/8 tsp. ground cloves (optional)

Preheat your oven to 425°F. Then butter (or using baking spray) four 6-oz. ramekins or soufflé dishes and place on a baking sheet.

In a large glass (or microwaveable bowl) place the chocolate and butter and cook on high 1 minute or until butter is melted. Stir with wire whisk until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in wine, vanilla and confectioners’ sugar until well blended. Stir in two eggs and one yolk. Stir in flour, cinnamon, ginger, cayenne, and cloves (optional). Pour batter evenly into ramekins.

Bake 13 to 15 minutes or until sides are firm but centers are soft. Do not overcook or you will not have “lava.” Let stand for 1 minute. Loosen the edges with a small knife by carefully inserting in an edge and working all the way around.

Invert cakes onto serving plates. The easiest way to do this is to place the plate onto the top of the cake, centered, and then flip it over. It will drop onto the plate easily. Sprinkle with additional confectioners’ sugar, ice cream or whipped cream. Serve immediately.

Tips: Don’t substitute inferior ingredients, i.e. margarine for the butter. The better chocolate you use, the better the chocolate taste in the cake.
You can make the batter a day ahead, pour into ramekins, cover and refrigerate. Make sure that you leave them out long enough to be room temperature before you bake.
This was modified from the McCormick lava cake recipe.