Sinful Molten Lava Cakes

This past week my inlaws have been in town.  Yesterday was their last night here so the hubs and I though we would cook a nice meal for them instead of going out to eat again, which can get old for almost a week!  For dessert I had 2 options: 1. My old faithful Chocolate Mousse - which dont get me wrong is ah-ma-zing, BUT I have made it many times and I was feeling adventurous which brought me to option 2. Chocolate Molton Lava Cakes - now that would be a challenge.  I always loooove Lava Cake when I get it at restaurants and wonder how do they get the outside so perfectly cakey and the inside so perfectly lavaey?

I cant take full credit for the recipe - I got it over at Pioneer Woman (who I seriously <3 by the way!) who got it from Tasty Kitchen (another awesome place to browse when you have some time).  I did switch up the serving a little bit though.  Here is a lil sneaky peak at the finished product:



Heaven on a Plate

Now don't all come through the computer at once to eat it :) Haha I was very proud of myself though because they did turn out delish!

Wanna know how I did it? Here goes!

First you want to take 1 stick of butter and 4oz of Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on high for 1 minute - At this point the butter should be totally melted and the chocolate softer but not melted.

Errr or you could realized every single mixing bowl you own is not microwave safe and use some tupperware like me then transfer it to a bowl once its out of the microwave, whoops? 


So now you want to whisk the melted butter and softened chocolate together until the chocolate is all melted and they are combined. Then stir in the 1 cup powdered sugar until its well incorporated - didnt take a pic of that step sorry, but I think you get the idea!  Next up is the eggs, whisk in the 2 full eggs and 2 eggs yolks.

(sorry for the bad quality on some of these pics) If you dont have one of these handy dandy egg separators you should think about getting one if you bake a lot. They are very fun and pretty cheap too.  If not you can separate the yolks out by the age old trick of transferring from one side of the shell to the other, that works just fine!


Once the eggs are incorporated, stir in the flour

Now its time to prep you custard bowls (dont have custard bowls? you can get them at Bed Bath and Beyond (armed with a coupon clearly) or even online at Amazon).  You want to arrange 4 on a baking sheet and spray them really well with cooking spray - that way you wont have any issues getting them out at the end.

Then distribute the batter evenly between them and pop them into an oven preheated to 425 degrees for 13-14 minutes.

When you take them out the edges should be firmish and the center will be soft. Let them sit for a minute after taking them out.

Now is the hardest part - flipping them onto your plate.  Take the custard cup by the bottom in one hand (with a potholder) then put the plate in your other hand, invert the custard cup directly onto your plate (dont plop it through the air cause you may loose some cake that way).  The custard cup will be hot and may be hard to grab off the plate now that its upside down, if you need to you can take a knife and shimmy it under the custard cup to get it to lift up enough to grab it.


Next your ready to decorate for presentation, I chose to do some caramel syrup

**However, don't do what I did, I put syrup on the plate before I flipped the cakes onto there, not a good idea, it was hard not to mess up the syrup, so do it after.  I also did 2 mini scoops of ice cream and some chocolate shavings.  Mini ice cream scoops you may be wondering, well instead of using a regular ice cream scooper I used my cookie dough scooper to make 2 small scoops, looked nice presentation wise I thought,  but 1 big old scoop works too.

There she is all pretty and ready to eat! Nom nom!!


Here is the concise version for ya:


Ingredients:

• 4oz (squares) Semi-sweet Baking Chocolate
• ½ cups Butter (1 stick)
• 1 cup Powdered Sugar
• 2 whole Eggs
• 2 whole Egg Yolks
• 6 Tablespoons Flour
• Vanilla Ice Cream
• Caramel Sauce (optional but its yummy)
• Chocolate shavings for presentation (also options)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl on high for about 1 minute, until butter is melted and chocolate is softened.
3. Whisk until chocolate is melted and incorporated.
4. Stir in sugar until well blended.
5. Whisk in eggs and egg yolks.
6. Stir in flour.
7. Spray 4 custard cups with cooking spray and place on cookie sheet.
8. Divide batter between cups.
9. Bake 13-14 minutes until sides are firm and center is soft. Let stand 1 minute.
10. Invert cakes on dishes.
11. Serve with ice cream, caramel sauce and anything else that might suit your fancy!

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