Molten Chocolate Cake (Moelleux au chocolat)

If you dream of silky smooth chocolate taking over your palate, then look no further than this molten chocolate cake. It’s rich, beautiful, and offers a perfect little surprise when you cut into it. 

Molten Chocolate Cake

A molten chocolate cake is a glorious thing, which you probably know if you’ve ever had one. It’s a chocolate cake that’s typically baked inside a small mold to create a petite cake. 

The magic of a molten chocolate cake comes from the surprise center. Once the cake is split open with your fork or spoon, melted chocolate oozes out like molten lava, hence the name. 

I’ll never forget the moelleux au chocolat (molten chocolate cake in French) that I had at a Parisian bistro during one of my trips to France. It was absolutely perfect. 

Gooey, but not super runny

In the past, when I’ve ordered molten chocolate cake, the center has really oozed out to the point that I was scrambling to scrape up all the melted chocolate with each bite of cake. 

The molten chocolate cake that I had in Paris had the perfect consistency. When I split the cake open with my spoon, the center was fudgy, gooey, and wet, but it wasn’t so runny that it oozed out all over my plate. 

I thought it was perfect. In a way, it reminded me of a really good brownie, and this girl loves her brownies!

Bake it just right

Whether you want your cake fudgy or super runny is all up to you. If you want the classic lava-style, it’s best to bake your cake for a shorter amount of time, 8 to 10 minutes. If you want it more intact and gooey, then 12 to 15 minutes in the oven will help you achieve that. 

When baking a chocolate molten cake, you just need the top of the cake to be set. When the tops of the cakes have just stopped jiggling, they’re OK to come out. If you want them more set, feel free to let them bake a little bit longer. 

Once they’re out of the oven, they need to sit in their molds for 5 minutes, then you can flip them out and garnish with powdered sugar and fresh berries!

Chocolate Molten Cake

Yield: 6

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Total Time: 18 minutes

Petite chocolate cakes with soft, melted centers.

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Ingredients

• 7 oz. dark chocolate 70%, (200 grams)
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar, (150 grams)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, (100 grams), plus more for molds
• 6 tbsp all-purpose flour, (50 grams) plus more for molds
• 1/8 tsp salt
• powdered sugar, for dusting on top

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave until the chocolate is almost melted. Stir the chocolate with a rubber spatula until it's completely melted and smooth. Let the chocolate slightly cool. In a separate bowl, melt the butter. 
2. Whisk the eggs and granulated sugar together in a medium bowl. Whisk until the mixture becomes paler in color and thick in consistency - about 1 minute of vigorous whisking. Pour in the melted butter, bit by bit, and whisk to incorporate. 
3. Add the all-purpose flour and salt, then whisk to combine. Pour in the melted chocolate, and again whisk to incorporate. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the bottom of the bowl and truly combine everything together well. 
4. Brush 6 ramekins with some softened butter, then dust with a little bit of all-purpose flour. Tap out the excess flour from the ramekins. Distribute the batter among the ramekins.
5. Bake the cakes for at least 8 minutes, or until the tops of the cakes have set. This will vary depending on your oven. It can be closer to 10 minutes for some ovens. If you want your cakes a little more set, you can bake them for 12 to 15 minutes. Just keep checking the cakes every minute, and remember that the cakes will continue to bake just a little bit more as they rest in the ramekins once they come out of the oven. 
6. Let the cakes rest in the ramekins for 10 minutes before you flip the cakes out.  Dust with powdered sugar and serve immediately. 

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 6 Serving Size: 6 Servings
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 454

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