Rich and decadent molten lava cakes filled with a silky gooey chocolate filling. These lave cakes are super easy to make with just 5 ingredients in under 30 minutes. They make a delicious dessert or Valentine’s day treat!
Molten lava cakes are the king of chocolate desserts. We like to make them on special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, and especially Valentine’s day. You can’t go wrong with a rich and chocolate dessert that’s loaded with a gooey molten lava center. It’s a favorite of both kids and adults and will be sure to impress your guests and loved ones.
I’m going to show you how to make the BEST and EASIEST molten lava cakes and once you get the hang of it, I promise you’ll be able to make them in a snap. This recipe only requires 5-6 basic ingredients that you probably already have in your fridge and pantry.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO MAKE MOLTEN LAVA CAKES
You will only need 5 basic ingredients to make these lava cakes and 2 optional flavors that can be added to add depth. To make chocolate molten lava cakes you will need:
Baking Chocolate: For the lava cakes we like to use 60% bittersweet chocolate. It’s perfect because it has a deep chocolate flavor and is not as sweet as semi-sweet chocolate. If you CAN NOT find the 60% bittersweet chocolate, feel free to use semi-sweet chocolate and reduce the sugar by 1/4th cup.
Butter: The butter is another essential ingredient in this decadent recipe so be sure to use the best butter you can find.
Eggs: no need to separate yolks and white for this recipe! Simply use whole eggs and be sure to beat them well.
Sugar: This recipe uses ½ cup of sugar for lava cakes that are not too sweet or too bitter. If you are making these lava cakes low carb, feel free to sub the sugar with a low carb sweetener with a 1:1 ratio.
Flour: No special flour necessary. All-purpose flour works perfectly If you are on a low-carb diet use almond flour instead with a 1:1 ratio.
Vanilla: This ingredient is optional but highly recommended!
Instant coffee or espresso powder: This is also an optional ingredient that adds a depth of flavor and enhances the lava cakes!
CAN I USE DIFFERENT SIZE RAMEKINS?
We like to use 4 oz ramekins for lava cakes because they make a perfect serving size of this incredibly rich dessert. This set from Amazon is perfect for these lava cakes at a super affordable price.
To use muffin cups: generously grease 6 muffin cups with butter and dust with coat or sugar (or both!). Divide mixture evenly into muffin tin and bake 10 minutes. This method is not the best because you will need to flip all the lava cakes at once so it requires some risk and patience.
To use 6 oz ramekins: divide the batter into 3 ramekins and bake 12-14 minutes.
To use 8 oz ramekins: divide the batter into 2 ramekins and bake 12-14 minutes.
CAN I FREEZE LAVA CAKES OR PREP AHEAD OF TIME?
Many people don’t think about this hack but yes, lava cakes are actually great prepared ahead of time and freeze well too.
To prepare the night before, make the recipe until the part where you place the batter into the ramekins then cover the ramekins and place in the fridge over-night. This should not affect the baking time.
To Freeze: Follow the recipe up to adding the batter into the ramekins then cover tightly and freeze up to 2 weeks. To bake, thaw ramekins for 30 minutes – 1 hour then bake as directed plus 5 minutes longer.
HOW TO SERVE LAVA CAKES
These delicious lava cakes are already good on their own and can simply be served with a light drizzle of cocoa powder or powdered sugar and a few berries.
If you would like to go the extra step, top them with vanilla ice-cream and a drizzle of chocolate syrup. The result is a warm lava cake with ice-cold ice cream that is out of this world!
Easy Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes
Ingredients
- 4 oz bittersweet chocolate
- 4 oz butter
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup sugar
- ¼ cup flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon Instant coffee or espresso powder, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Generously butter and dust 5 (4 oz) ramekins with cocoa powder or sugar; set aside.
- In a medium microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate and butter in 30-second increments.
- In a separate large bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy. Whisk in the melted chocolate along with the flour, vanilla, and instant coffee if desired.
- Divide batter into ramekins and place them on a baking sheet. Bake 12 minutes or until the edges begin to pull away from the ramekins but the center is still jiggly.
- Remove from oven and serve immediately with ice cream.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Excellent dessert! My family and I loved it!
Can I reduce sugar in this recipe?
Yes, you can reduce it up to 3/4th.
If I bake these after having them in the refrigerator overnight, do I need to adjust the cooking time?
Can I use a muffin pan instead of ramekins?
The first few times I made these they tasted like egg but I just tried again I only used two eggs. It’s soo much better and tastier with two eggs, also I used semi sweet & milk chocolate chips.
Although the taste wasn;t bad, there was too much lava and not enough cake in this recipe. I prefer the versions where you have a cake with lava in the center. approx 85-90% lava to 15-10% cake.
omg tysm for this recipe! i made this for my family and it was so easy and delicious! however, i only used 2 eggs for this and it was perfect!!
Yum! so happy to hear 🙂
If I make these the night before, do I need to bring them to room temperature the next day to bake?
Appreciate if you can please give the recipe in metrics. Thank you.
I have 8 oz ramekins… could you double the recipe to make 4 cakes?
Yes, you may be able to fit the batter into 3 (80z) ramekins and bake about 2 minutes longer
Thank you so much for this! We’ve tried it twice. We used a jumbo sized muffin tin and it made 4. The first time I over baked them but the magic number is just under 10 minutes. It’s a fun and quick treat!
Thanks for the feedback!
Super easy and super delicious. My first one baked for 12 minutes was slightly overdone (gooey but a bit cakey on the inside–but still delicious). Did the next batch at 11 minutes and they were perfect.
So simple and delicious!! I love how these are gooey like brownie batter (please tell me I’m not the only one who likes the batter plain!), but not sickeningly sweet.
I used semi-sweet chocolate chips and reduced the sugar to 1/4 cup. I also baked it in 5 mini loaf pans for 10 min (probably would have been fine with 9 min). Thanks for the recipe!
Great to hear! Thanks for stopping by <3
Made this for my husband’s birthday celebration. Perfection! Thank you
Made this for my man for his birthday they turned out fabulous
These were so quick and easy to make and turned out delicious, I could only get 70% bittersweet and did not add anymore sugar, used instant coffee , I found 10-12 minutes was enough and over 12 was too long, it was just a cake, no delicious lava center. I had one left and heated it in the microwave next day and still delicious, My husband who isn’t a fan of sweets and chocolate cake even loved this and wanted more. Because this is such an easy quick recipe You could whip this up if your craving something chocolate, I will absolutely make this again and again.
Mine had no “lava” in the center. It’s just cake. Did I cook it too long?
Yes, if there was no lava then you probably baked it too long. Ovens cook differently so I suggest taking it out a few minutes earlier next time and see!
My family and I had chocolate craving after dinner and I was just joking about making lava cakes for dessert . Obviously my kids took it seriously and here I am, proud to say that i made it and everyone was begging for 2nd helping. It is the quickest dessert I had ever made. It only took me 20mins from making to tasting. Marvelous!!!
Easy, quick and delicious,. Even my husband, who is not a chocolate lover, wanted more!
This sounds perfect for my daughter’s birthday who has requested a gooey chocolate cake. My son unfortunately only likes white chocolate. Would I be able to use white chocolate in place of the 60% bittersweet chocolate? Would any other adjustments need to be made? Thank so so much for your help!
You should be able to use the same ratios but I have not tried it. This gives me another recipe idea! I will test it out soon and let you know <3
YEP!! turned out amazing and absolutely SPOT ON….
yep… EXCELLENT and SPOT ON recipe…. turned out amazing…
My kids were craving for choco lava cake last night. Found your recipe to be fairly simple and quick to make. They were soooo yummy!!! My kids loved it and my husband (who is not a chocolate fan at all) tasted the choco lava cake that my son was having and said this is better than what you get at restaurants 😁 I had semi sweet chocolate chips….so I used 6oz of those and 1/4th cup granulated sugar as mentioned by you. They turned out perfect. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Regards
Arti
Yum, Happy the kids enjoyed the lava cakes!
Much better than 6 eggs/6 egg yolks etc.