Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes for 2

By Jannese Torres @delishdlites

Who doesn’t love an ooey, gooey chocolate cake with a warm liquid chocolate center? I fell in love with these delish treats while traveling on Carnival cruises, as the molten lava cake is one of their signature dessert dishes throughout the fleet.  In my attempt to recreate them at home, I kept running into recipes that made 4-6 cakes, which is way too much for my household, since it’s just the hubby and I.  So I decided to scale down the typical recipe to make 2 cakes, perfect for a date night, or any other night of the year.  These lava cakes are really easy to put together.  You can have them assembled, baked and served in 20 minutes!

Ingredients
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 large egg
2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt

Optional for serving: vanilla ice cream, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and/or fresh berries

Directions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Generously grease two 5-ounce ramekins with non-stick cooking spray or butter. Place the ramekins on a baking sheet and set aside. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips and butter in the microwave for about 1 minute. Stir every 30 seconds until smooth. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cocoa powder, vanilla, powdered sugar, and the egg.  Stir in the melted chocolate mixture, and whisk until any lumps are gone. Divide the batter evenly between the 2 ramekins. Bake the cakes in the center of the oven for 13-14 minutes.  They’ll be cracked on the top, with a gooey center. Remove the cakes from the oven and let them rest for 1 minute.  Then run a knife around the edge, before inverting the cakes onto a plate.  The easiest way to do is by holding the hot ramekin (with a pot holder) and laying an inverted plate on top. Then flip the whole thing over. Check out the gooey center, it oozed out immediately!  Talk about foodporn… To really take this molten lava cake to the next level, serve with a scoop of ice cream, or some powdered sugar or cocoa powder & fresh berries.