Ingredients

Makes around 8 - 10 molten lava cakes

3 Eggs plus 3 additional egg yolks

120 g (½ cup) White sugar

150 g (5.5 oz) Unsweetened dark chocolate, 70% Cocoa

100 g (1 stick) Butter

40 g (5 tbsp) All purpose flour

25 g (3½ tbsp) Cocoa powder

Pinch of salt

An additional 8 - 10 squares of dark chocolate for adding to the center of each cake.

Powdered sugar for dusting - optional

Method

With some molten lava cake recipes, you have to get the baking time precisely right, otherwise the center won’t be runny. The great thing about this recipe is your molten lava cakes will always have perfectly runny centers. So you really can’t go wrong with these!

For the cake batter

In a large bowl add the whole eggs and extra egg yolks, along with the white sugar. Whisk the mixture until it triples in volume and becomes pale in color.

In a bowl, melt the chocolate and butter. Then add the melted chocolate and butter to the egg mixture.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder and salt into the egg mixture. Whisk everything together. Note that the chocolate will sink to the bottom of the bowl. So finish mixing by using a spatula, scraping the bottom of the bowl, to ensure that all the chocolate is properly incorporated.

To assemble the cakes

Prepare the ramekins by buttering the insides and dusting with cocoa powder. This will ensure the lava cakes don’t stick to the ramekin while baking - you need to be able to turn these cakes out onto serving plates.

Half fill each ramekin with the cake batter. Place a square of dark chocolate, coated in a little flour, onto the batter. Then, fill up the ramekin with more cake batter.

Tap each ramekin gently on your work surface to settle the batter and remove an air pockets. Then, put them in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Bake the molten lava cakes at 220 °C (420 °F) for 10 minutes. The high heat sets the edges of the cake, allowing the middle to remain runny.

Turn the cakes out onto serving plates. If you want, you can dust the cakes with powdered sugar. These cakes are particularly great served with vanilla ice cream.

Tips

It’s important to incorporate lots of air when whiskey the eggs and sugar because the eggs are the only raising agent in this recipe. There’s no baking soda or baking powder.

Coating the pieces of chocolate with flour stops them sinking to the bottom of the cake as it bakes.

You can assemble the molten lava cakes up to five days in advance, and keep them in the fridge until ready to bake.