Maria NasirSanober Khan
Yes, chocolate has exactly that comforting quality that a child feels in a mother’s lap. And imagine when it’s a decadent, soft chocolate cake with a core that’s ready to ooze out more hot, creamy and dreamy chocolate sauce at the mere touch of a fork! Of course I’m talking about molten lava cake – the most coveted dessert ever on restaurant menus and most requested by my friends and family on all get togethers.
Eating a chocolate dessert, one can easily lose control and end up overeating. That is exactly why I love mini desserts of all sorts. They look elegant, are easy to serve as individual treats even in big gatherings and one can indulge without a huge hangover of guilt afterwards, hence mini molten lava cakes!
There are a million recipes out there for molten lava cake and believe me, I’ve tried as many as I could over the years. It was after many trials and errors that I got the cake texture just right with a flood of chocolate sauce hidden inside, waiting to burst out.
The dessert is simple and common enough with very few ingredients but it’s all about getting the right ratio of ingredients, the correct temperature and the exact time to pull the cakes out of the oven. Getting these three elements right ensures that every forkful is bathed in velvety chocolate decadence.
Finally when I got all these factors right, I decided that the recipe is a keeper and must be passed on to the next generation of chocolate worshippers – my daughters. It’s the first week of their summer vacation and they are back in the kitchen with me learning some basic techniques and cooking yummy stuff for the whole family. These mini molten lava cakes they baked today as a rehearsal for the coming Father’s Day dinner menu.
They weren’t sure whether the cakes will be filled with heavenly chocolate sauce inside or would just turn out to be plain warm chocolate cakes but as they cut through the first one and a thick, glossy, warm stream of chocolate gushed out uncontrollably, their eyes gleamed with joy of achieving perfection.
So are you still sitting around, waiting to taste heaven?!
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
2/3 cup cooking chocolate, chopped
This Is What You Do:
Prepare 2 oven proof custard bowls for baking mini molten lava cakes. Generously brush the bottom and sides of the bowls with 1 tablespoon butter.
Add 1/2 tablespoon sugar to each bowl. Rotate the bowls to allow the sugar to coat the butter all around.
Melt chocolate in a microwave safe bowl at 30 seconds interval. Take out between intervals and stir so that it doesn’t burn. Or you can melt it in a double boiler on stove top.
In a mixing bowl, add 2 tablespoons and 2 tablespoons butter. Beat together with an electric mixer till creamy and smooth.
Add eggs and beat again till frothy.
Add flour and salt, beat just enough to mix everything. Do not over beat.
Stir in vanilla essence and half of the chocolate. Mix with a rubber spatula or plastic spoon.
Add the remaining chocolate and fold in carefully till there are no white streaks.
Divide the batter equally into the prepared bowls. Place them in preheated oven. Bake for 12-13 minutes or till the top and edges are just set and centre still soft to touch.
Remove them from oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Carefully loosen the edges with a blunt knife.
Put a serving plate over the bowl and flip. Tap at the bottom of the bowl to ease out the cake onto the plate. Repeat with the other.
Serve immediately because the warm cakes are still cooking inside. Serve with a scoop of ice cream, cream, chocolate syrup, caramel sauce or any fruit jam of your choice. Or serve as is with just some powdered sugar and fresh seasonal fruits.