Monday, December 12, 2011

Molten Lava Cake (Using Cocoa powder)

I am not a chocolate lover. I do make chocolate stuff since kids love chocolate. I have made chocolate desserts for people who love it. This post was written on a request from a reader. She asked if I could bake these and post as part of the Bake-A-Thon. I made it for the post, but there is something very different about this recipe. It doesn't use chocolate bars. So, it is great for those people who cannot get good quality chocolate. And it is great for people like me who hate separating eggs. This uses whole eggs. If you ask me what is the hardest part of baking, my answer would be separating the eggs. (Yeah, I know you are laughing at me right now, but that is the truth)
For those who want to know a little about how this works -
Molten lava cake is basically a brownie batter with reduced flour. You might ask how the center stays gooey. Reason is baking at high temperature which causes the crust to develop. If you bake the same batter for longer time at 350 F, you will get a brownie instead of a molten lava cake. I don't even know why they call it a cake when it is just a brownie. There is no leavening agent in it for it to raise like most of the cake recipes. So, that is my rambling about the science behind this.


One year back - Eggless Almond Date Cake
Two years back - Barley Dosa
Adapted from - Martha Stewart
Ingredients:
Butter - 8 TBSP or 1 stick melted and cooled plus more for the ramekins or muffin pans.
Sugar - 1/3 cup + 9 TBSP (1/3 cup+1/2 cup+1 TBSP) plus more for the pans.
Unsweetened natural cocoa - 3/4 cup + 2 tsp (You can just use 3/4 cup)
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Eggs - 3 large
All purpose flour - 1/3 cup
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Confectioner's sugar for dusting (optional)
Whipped cream or ice cream to serve with

Method:
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Butter 5 - 6 ramekins or muffin cups generously with butter and coat with sugar. In a bowl, whisk together cocoa powder with butter. In another bowl, whisk eggs and sugar till foamy. Add Vanilla to the egg and sugar mixture and mix. Add the egg and sugar mixture to the cocoa and butter mixture. Stir gently to incorporate. Add flour and salt and stir together well. Divide between the ramekins or muffin cups filling almost full (more than 3/4 full should be good). Place the ramekins on a cookie sheet or a baking pan. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes or until the center doesn't jiggle when shaken gently. Remove from the oven and let it rest 10 minutes. Invert on to the serving platter and serve with whipped cream or ice cream. You could dust with confectioner's sugar if you wish. I wanted everything to be visible and confectioner's sugar can hide a lot of details. You can serve it in the ramekin if you like it that way.

Notes:
I did not have bittersweet chocolate at home. If you want to use that, you could use 8 Oz of that (or semisweet chocolate) and then use only 4 TBSP of butter. Sugar needed would be just 1/3 cups. I calculated and converted 8 Oz of bittersweet in terms of cocoa, sugar and butter.

Today is day 12 of the Bake-A-Thon.  My fellow bloggers doing this are - Preethi, Veena, Priya. Accredited online colleges are an option for busy people who want to hone their cooking skills.

Enjoy.
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44 comments:

  1. I love molten, gooey chocolate in lava cakes...absolutely a sweet-toothed..and adore this post:)

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  2. I realy love this molten Lava cake.Its one of my favourite.Wilkl give a try.

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  3. your blog posts looks yummy.. am your new follower...

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  4. Champa-I wanted to let you know how much I love your Molten Lava cake made with cocoa powder. I've always made it with melted chocolate, but will try your delicious recipe. I particularly am a "hopeless chocolate love"...can't leave any kind of chocolates around me, worst than a kid, in a "candy store"...lol!

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  5. That looks so tempting....

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  6. Very nice! Cocoa powder texture was evident (new for me) in the results which I let bake about 9.5 minutes in a tin muffin pan which I had buttered and sugared in prep. This was a perhaps minute too long for the lava affect and rendered more of a thick pudding. Also, I might increase sugar content to 1/2 C next time, but with ice cream the sweetness was fine I'm told. I ate mine without ice cream. This is intense chocolate flavor! I served this to my wife with her favorite ice cream quickly sculpted into a rose shape as a Valentines Day desert.

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  7. Anonymous,
    Thanks for the feedback. I agree it is intense chocolate if you eat it by itself. but with some whipped cream or ice cream, it is just perfect.

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  8. I made lava cake based on your recipe yesterday for valentines day and it was delicious! thank you so much for sharing!
    http://sugarpuffpuff.blogspot.com/2012/02/youve-got-me-lava-cake.html

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  9. Thank you for posting this..... wanted something chocolaty but only had cocoa powder..... wonderful!!!

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  10. Wow.. I've been wanting to make this for a long time! love your recipe... will try it out some time. Looks mouth watering:)

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  11. Yummy!!!! I added jes a tiny bit of almond extract (like a 1/4 teaspoon) and it really complimented the rich, deep chocolate flavor. I have been looking for a recipe that used cocoa powder instead of bar or pieces, and this one def did not disappoint!!! Delish!

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  12. Delish!!!! I added a very small splash ( less than half a teaspoon) of almond extract. It complimented the rich, deep chocolate flavor. Oh so good! Thank you!!!! I love using cocoa powder instead of bar or pieces of chocolate.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you very much for the feedback. I appreciate it.

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  13. How many does this recipe make? And it sounds amazing. ^_^ must try.

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  14. Hey tried to make this and followed your directions to the t but atill didnt come out correctly. Just a warning for anyone who thinks this might be 'easy' I'd make a good batch of brownies instead.

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    Replies
    1. I don't know what the problem was. It worked for me and many others. Thanks for the feedback though.

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  15. Just made it! soooo sooo yummy! and it was easy to make. it's really rich too which i love

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  16. I just made a low carb version of this and it was awesome! I used maltitol/stevia and almond meal. So good!

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  17. mine failed :( terribly. the cake was so dense and didn't have a molten lava so i threw it away. i think i didn;t foam my eggs up enough

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    1. Yvonne,
      Sorry to hear you didn't get good results. The cake is suppose to be dense more like a brownie. If you over bake it, it will be come hard. Just a few pointers, but I have got good response on this recipe so far.

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  18. Hi Champa,
    My kids love this cake, will definetly try to make it for them.Btw lovely website,came across recently.
    www.foodtorelish.com

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  19. I just tried this recipe and it's my first attempt at molten lava cake. It came out perfect! It's so easy to make, I can hardly believe it. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe ♥

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  20. When does the vanilla get added?

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    Replies
    1. Good catch and thanks for bringing it to my attention. I have fixed it.

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  21. First time ever attempting a molten lava cake and it's so awesome I am very happy with my results

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  22. First time ever attempting a molten lava cake, so delicious! Very happy with my results

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  23. Needs to be cooked 20 minutes otherwise its hot pudding with a crust.

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  24. This recipe is good except way to much coco powder which makes it bitter

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  25. How much Instant Expresso powder would you add if you wanted that coffee flavor?

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    Replies
    1. 1 tsp should be good but if you are a coffee lover, you can go up to 2 tsp.

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    2. Thank you! I'm going to make it today, in honor of National Chocolate Day!

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    3. Yes! I made them today & added the Instant Espresso, and they are just delicious! Thank you!

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  26. Replies
    1. 6 muffin sized ramekins. If you use bigger size, you get less.

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  27. It was amazing. Tasted so good with ice cream.

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  28. How can i convert this recipe servs 2 or 4 people...

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    1. It is very hard to half this recipe. You can do 1/3rd but then you will have to convert all dry ingredients to tablespoons and divide by 3. Sorry, not much of help there.

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  29. very nice. i don't have chocolate so i used this recipe and it was amazing

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  30. i love it !! thanks !! thanks thanks !!!! love love love !!! ❤️‍ but i'm curious why didn't the recipe mentioned baking powder !! i'm a beginner that's why !! ✌️ thanks again

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