A high altitude tested recipe for molten chocolate lava cakes. These rich and gooey chocolate cakes are baked in individual ramekins, and are best served hot from the oven with ice cream.
You might also love these high altitude recipes for chocolate spoon cake, single serving chocolate mug cake, and chocolate depression cake.
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Ingredients
- Cocoa Powder. To prep the ramekins, you’ll be coating the insides with butter and cocoa powder (just as you might prep a cake pan with butter and flour) to keep the cakes from sticking. By using cocoa powder, your chocolate cake will be a nicer color without white splotches of flour.
- Chocolate. For the melted chocolate in the batter, you need to chop up a bar of 70% dark chocolate. Chocolate chips contain stabilizers, preventing them from melting as smoothly, so they don’t work well for the gooey, molten centers for these chocolate lava cakes.
- Eggs. You’ll be using two eggs, plus two egg yolks, so save the extra whites for another use. I simply add them to scrambled eggs for breakfast for extra protein.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Place the ramekins on a baking sheet. Brush the 1 tbsp softened butter inside the ramekins, then dust with the cocoa powder to keep the cakes from sticking. You can use either six 4-ounce ramekins for six small servings, or four 6-ounce ramekins for four medium servings. Using 6-ounce ramekins will give you more batter in each ramekin and a gooeyer center, but may need 1-2 minutes additional bake time.
- Chop up 6 ounces of good quality dark chocolate (Lindt 70% preferred). In a saucepan, melt the chocolate with the 1/2 cup butter over medium low heat, stirring frequently until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.
- In a bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the eggs and egg yolks on medium speed for about five minutes, until light and foamy.
- Add the melted chocolate and butter, and whisk together with the eggs until smooth.
- Separately, combine the flour, powdered sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the chocolate batter, and whisk just until combined. The batter will be thick.
- Divide the batter between the prepared ramekins (approximately 1/4 cup batter per ramekin if using six 4-ounce ramekins, or approximately 1/3 cup batter per ramekin if using four 6-ounce ramekins).
- Bake the cakes for approximately 13-15 minutes. At 13 minutes, the centers will still be quite molten and gooey; at 15 minutes, the cakes will be more set with just a little molten batter in the center.
- Cool the cakes in the ramekins for 1 minute, then hold them with a hot pad to invert them onto serving plates. Dust with cocoa powder and serve immediately with ice cream.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
Neither size is “better”. I only own the four ounce size, so that’s what I used, and this will make six small cakes. If you want a slightly larger serving with a gooeyer center, then you should use the six ounce size to make four cakes.
You can save the leftovers in the baking ramekins, but the centers will set up more and the cakes will be much more dense after cooling. They’re still delicious reheated for about 20-30 seconds in the microwave on 50% power.
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High Altitude Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- six 4-ounce ramekins (or four 6-ounce ramekins)
- Electric Mixer (Stand or Hand-Held)
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter, very soft
- 2 tbsp unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa powder
- 6 oz 70% dark chocolate (not chocolate chips)
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 2 large eggs
- 2 large egg yolks (save the extra whites for another use)
- â…“ cup all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- â…“ cup powdered sugar
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half this amount)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Place the ramekins on a baking sheet. Brush the 1 tbsp softened butter inside the ramekins, then dust with the cocoa powder to keep the cakes from sticking.You can use either six 4-ounce ramekins for six small servings, or four 6-ounce ramekins for four medium servings. Using 6-ounce ramekins will give you more batter in each ramekin and a gooeyer center, but may need 1-2 minutes additional bake time.
- Chop up 6 ounces of good quality dark chocolate (Lindt 70% preferred). In a saucepan, melt the chocolate with the 1/2 cup butter over medium low heat, stirring frequently until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.
- In a bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the eggs and egg yolks on medium speed for about five minutes, until light and foamy.
- Add the melted chocolate and butter, and whisk together with the eggs until smooth.
- Separately, combine the flour, powdered sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the chocolate batter, and whisk just until combined. The batter will be thick.
- Divide the batter between the prepared ramekins (approximately 1/4 cup batter per ramekin if using six 4-ounce ramekins, or approximately 1/3 cup batter per ramekin if using four 6-ounce ramekins).
- Bake the cakes for approximately 13-15 minutes. At 13 minutes, the centers will still be quite molten and gooey; at 15 minutes, the cakes will be more set with just a little molten batter in the center.
- Cool the cakes in the ramekins for 1 minute, then hold them with a hot pad to invert them onto serving plates. Dust with cocoa powder and serve immediately with ice cream.
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Hello! I am looking for a butterscotch lava cake recipe. Do you think it would work to simply swap the chocolate for butterscotch chips, following the recipe otherwise?
Thank you!
My guess would be that it wouldn’t work, since butterscotch chips are so much sweeter than the dark chocolate is.