Molten Chocolate Cake

Good morning everyone! Hope you all had a great 4th Of July weekend! We had music and fireworks at a performance center near our home and eventhough we didnt go, we could see the fireworks from our patio!! It was really amazing, I really enjoyed it.

I had planned to post this cake last week, but unexpectedly got really sick. So I was in bed the whole weekend (darn!). But I went to work for a couple of days this week and so is taking today off. Sadly lil LM and JM are sick as well, so all's not well.

Anyways, this is a molten cake recipe that I tried a couple of weeks ago. It is also known as molten lava cake. The cake is very simple to prepare and as the name suggests, the cake will only be cooked for about 5-10 minutes so that the edges will be set. But when you cut into the cake, the center will still be liquid and will flow out of the cake in a chocolate-y ooey gooey lava. The recipe given is for 8 individual cakes, but I halved the recipe and made only 3 cakes. I let them bake in the oven for the 8 mintes mentioned in the recipe, but that almost cooked through the cake. So in my understanding, if you are making the entire recipe, bake for 8-9 minutes and if reducing the recipe, reduce the time accordingly. Slightly moist interior can be found in the last set of pictures.

Eventhough the center didnt flow out when cut into, the cake wasnt cooked dry, so each bite was really moist, creamy and decadent. It was unlike any cake that I've had before. It sure was melt-in-your-mouth goodness!! Give this recipe a try, and I'm sure you all will love it!

Recipe ( Makes 8 servings) :

Semi sweet chocolate - 4 squares (4oz), chopped

Butter or margarine - 1/2 cup (1 stick), cut into pieces

Heavy or whipping cream - 1/4 cup

Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp

All-purpose flour - 1/4 cup

Granulated sugar - 1/4 cup

Eggs - 2, large

Egg yolks - 2, large

Confectioner's sugar - for dusting

Whipped cream or Vanilla icecream (optional)

Method:

Preheat oven to 400F. Grease eight 6 oz custard cups. Dust with sugar.

In a heavy saucepan, heat chocolate, butter and cream over low heat, stirring occasionally, until butter and chocolate have melted and the mixture is smooth.

Remove pan from heat and add vanilla extract.

With a wire whisk, stir in flour just until the mixture is smooth.

In a medium bowl, with mixer at high speed, beat granulated sugar, eggs and yolk until thick and lemon colored, about 10 minutes.

Fold egg mixture into chocolate mixture, one third at a time, until blended.

Divide the batter evenly between the custard cups.

Place cups in jelly-roll pan for easier handling.

Bake until edges of cakes are set but the centers still jiggle, about 8-9 minutes.

Cool in pan on a wire rack for 3 minutes.

Run a knife around the edges to loosen cakes from the sides of cups, invert onto dessert plates.

Dust with confectioners' sugar.

Serve immediately with whipped cream or icecream, if desired.

Source: Good Housekeeping Best Loved Desserts.

Tips:

1. I only made half the recipe, just reduced all the ingredients by half.
   
2. Reduce the baking time to 6 minutes or so (if you halve the recipe), since my cakes turned out almost well cooked. One of them was still moist inside, but the others were cooked through. But still they were creamy and decadent once in the mouth!! :-)

Stay healthy and have a great weekend!!

ATTENTION:

Some of you contacted me about the fact that you cannot open my blog with Internet explorer. I am having the same problem with error messages coming up everytime. I am currently using a different browser. Earlier on, refreshing the page a couple of times helped. If anybody knows what the problem could be, I would really appreciate the help. I am so sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you!