Molten Chocolate Lava Cake

What better way to start my journey than with something that I have wanted to make for the past few years but kept putting off. I kept telling myself that I couldn't make true molten lava cakes if I didn't have those cute little ramekins, or at least glass custard cups. (You can actually use a muffin tin, but I wanted the authentic experience.) One of my Christmas gifts was a set of 8 custard cups and I knew then that my excuses for not making them were getting pretty flimsy. So yesterday, in honor of the Superbowl and wanting to have a slam-bang dessert to finish off our eating fest I decided to finally bite the bullet and make them.

I started my search for the perfect recipe. I found a few different ones that had amazing pictures and good reviews, but trying to narrow it down was a little difficult because they were all pretty similar. Oddly enough, our determining factor came down to serving size. As yummy as this cake is, and it is yummy, I did not want it hanging around our house for more than a day or two after making it. Too much temptation!

So, without further ado, here are Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes! **I've made it since this post, as evidenced by the photo above, and added caramel the second time around. Put batter in about half of a dish and then one or two caramels and then fill with the rest of the batter. I did one caramel but I think two would help you taste the caramel more.**

I slightly modified mine based on various reviews for this recipe. Next time I might try some type of fruit topping, along with the ice cream of course. Goodness knows I'll be making this more often now that I've seen how easy it is. Enjoy!

Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes

Source: allrecipes.com

1 cup unsalted butter

8 oz. Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate baking chips

5 large eggs

1/2 cup sugar

pinch of salt

4 teaspoons flour

Melt butter and chocolate in a glass bowl in the microwave for one minute. Slowly stir together with a whisk. (You want the heat of the butter to melt the chocolate but you don't want it too hot for your eggs.)

Beat eggs, sugar, and salt with a hand mixer in a medium bowl until sugar dissolves. Beat egg mixture into chocolate until smooth. Beat in flour until just combined. (Batter can be made up to a day ahead. Just cover, refrigerate, and warm to room temperature an hour or so before baking.)

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Spray 7 oz. ramekins, custard cups, or a muffin tin liberally with cooking spray. Divide batter evenly.

Bake until batter puffs but center is not set, 8 to 10 minutes. Immediately invert each cake onto a plate. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. (In my book this is a must. How can you have chocolate cake, especially ooey, gooey chocolate cake, without vanilla ice cream. Plus it cuts down on the chocolate factor and makes it more enjoyable for tasters like my husband who isn't as big of a chocolate fan as I am.)