Molten Chocolate Cakes (Chocolate Lava Cakes)

These cakes were so fun to make, eat, and photograph.  What's not fun is the butter content.... but we can just ignore that for now.  I excused it because we were celebrating Father's Day like a month late... my husband was gone on Father's Day.  (I first wrote "Fake Father's Day" but then that sounded like the Father was fake, not the day, and the might have been confusing to some of you.  Sorry). 

This is a recipe I've had my eye on forever, but was recently nudged to make it by the delish-looking photos posted on Eating, Etc.  When I started making these, I thought I had some caramel sauce in the fridge, but I didn't, so we just had these with plain vanilla ice cream.  Still so good, though! 

After baking these, I called everyone down so they could watch me un-mold them.  The kids were totally fascinated by the first one I did... it broke upon impact, releasing hot fudgy goodness.  Then they watched me unmold the rest and were still fascinated, asking how I made the chocolate lava inside, etc.  Try this recipe, at least once!  It's such a cool recipe to make and SOOOO good!!  If you do not own ramekins, you can make this recipe in 8 extra-large muffin cups, or 12 regular ones (just bake for less time). 

Molten Chocolate Cakes

adapted from Allrecipes and Eating, Etc.

1 cup unsalted butter*
8oz semisweet chocolate chips
5 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
4 tsp all-purpose flour
6-8 small ramekins
cooking spray
whipping cream or ice cream

1) Preheat oven to 450°F.  (I was more comfy with 400 F, because my oven is crazy). 

2) Melt butter & chocolate in double boiler or medium heat-proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water; remove from heat.

3) In a separate medium bowl, with a hand mixer, beat eggs, sugar, & salt until sugar dissolves.

4) Mix egg mixture into chocolate until smooth.

5) Stir in flour until just combined.

6) Spray bottom & sides of 6-8 ramekins with cooking spray.

7) Divide batter among ramekins.  May place ramekins on cookie sheet if desired.

8) Bake on middle rack until batter puffs but center is not set. This can vary from 8-12 minutes, depending on size of your ramekins. Mine were done in about 10, I think.

9) Carefully lift cakes from ramekins and serve, inverted, on dessert plates.

10) Top with whipped cream and drizzle with caramel sauce. Serve warm.

*If you use salted butter (like I had to; my store was out of unsalted), just omit the salt, or else the cakes will be too salty.

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