Valentine's Day = time for molten chocolate cake! With 6 ingredients & 20 minutes, you'll have the perfect treat to share with someone you love.
Happy almost-Valentine’s Day! Jack here reporting on my first baking love – molten chocolate cake. See, way before this blog, I pretty much had one staple “date night” dish. That dish was seared scallops and it was always a hit. Well, one Valentine’s Day, I decided to kick it up a notch and shoot for the moon… by trying out molten chocolate cakes.
I had never made anything like a molten chocolate cake before, and for those unfamiliar, it’s a cake that spills out chocolate sauce when you cut into it. It’s a great show when it works. My first time making the cakes, I pulled them out of the oven, flipped the pan and a gush of chocolate sauce poured out. So what did Jeanine and I do? What anyone would do – licked the plate clean and tried again.
On the second try, I flipped the pan, plated the cakes, we cut in and PERFECTION. Chocolate oozed out, and we ate our second set of molten cakes for the night. Seeing how impressed Jeanine was made all of the effort worth it.
So it’s Valentine’s Day – go for it. It’s a blast when you get it right, it’s still fun when you don’t, and no matter what you’re still eating chocolate with the one you love. There are worse ways to spend a night.
Anyway, on to the making…
Avid readers may notice that this is similar to another molten chocolate cake post. Well it’s the same. But with new photos and better instructions.
The prep for this recipe is super simple. The first step is tempering the chocolate and butter on a double-broiler.
After that, you simply whisk the eggs, incorporate sugar, then chocolate (cooled to room temp – you don’t want to cook the eggs!), then flour, one thing at a time until it’s all mixed. Then you pour the mixture into your oiled muffin tin, 3/4 full for each cup.
Cook times can be a bit all over the place (depending on your oven) – it can be anywhere from 5-8 minutes. You’ll know when it’s done when the middle of each cake starts to puff up at the end. (Don’t cook it much longer than that or your molten center will over bake).
After removing the tin from the oven, you need to flip it, and here’s the easiest way: Place the muffin pan on a cookie sheet, put another cookie sheet on top, grab both sides (squeezing the muffin pan) and flip it.
You want to lift the muffin pan and try to tap out the cakes as you go. Note that a few cakes may not come out. Ignore those and concentrate on the ones that do drop. Transfer them to a plate, put ice cream on top, cut them open and enjoy!
For more Valentine’s recipe ideas, check out this post!
Valentine's Molten Chocolate Cakes
- 1 stick + 3 tablespoons butter (non-dairy earth balance works fine too)
- 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate (70% cacao recommended)
- 3 egg yolks
- 3 whole eggs
- 1.5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- ½ cup all purpose flour (we’ve also used spelt)
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
- Melt the chocolate and butter together in a double boiler over the stove (or place a glass bowl on top of a (smaller) saucepan filled with a little boiling water. Once your chocolate is melted, let it cool to room temp before adding the mixture to the eggs. (Pop it in the fridge for a few minutes if you want).
- With an electric mixer, whisk the eggs, then slowly add the sugar, then the chocolate mixture, then gradually add the flour. Mix until smooth.
- Pour into a greased muffin tin - filling muffin cups about ¾ of the way full.
- Bake for 5-8 minutes or until the middle puffs up but the cake inside is still underdone.
- Remove from the oven and place the muffin pan on a cookie sheet. Place another cookie sheet on top. Hold it all together and gently (but quickly) flip it so the muffin tin is now upside down. Carefully lift up the muffin tin, give it a shake and a tap to get the cakes to drop down.
- Serve with a scoop of ice cream.
If you have a flexible silicone muffin pan - use that - it's the easiest pan to get the cakes to pop out of.
Products used in this post:
Filomena Muffin Pan from Anthropologie
KitchenAid Artisan Series Mixer
recipe adapted from Food Network
So glad Whole Foods just reposted this recipe for 2017 Valentine’s menu. Any recommendations for making it gluten-free?
Made this recipe twice now, once for valentines day and once for friends coming over and both times they have come out amazing. Both times I have made six and put the rest of the mixture in a brownie tin. Everyone loves them, thanks for the great recipe!
Hi Helen! I’m so glad! It’s our favorite dessert for impressing guests too – glad everyone loved it!
These look amazing!! The chocolate is just spilling out! Yum! I also love that muffin pan!!
Molten chocolate cake is the best and this looks like a great recipe!
This is one of my favorite desserts…and my mother-in-law’s! I made these molten cakes for family dinner and ever since she always requests these for dessert. Thanks so much for a perfect chocolate-y treat.
a lovely recipe (even if there is a little bit too much eggs for my taste… but once in a while, it can be yummy !)
but could you tell me what is “a stick of butter” in grams or tbsp…. I have no idea how much it is.
thanks 🙂
Hi Marie, it’s definitely an indulgent dessert (for special occasions) – the eggs really make the texture just perfect. 1 stick of butter: 8 tablespoons, or 113 grams, or 4 ounces.
That muffin tin is to die for!! And I can’t ever resist melty chocolate–yum!!
Ohh, this chocolate cake looks fantastic and the last photo is pure heaven! I cannot imagine how soft is the chocolate inside so I really need to try this! :)) I’m the perfect example of a cake addict, but coming originally from Slovakia we simply didn’t have all those patisseries full of “honest”, home-made desserts that look like art. And then, arriving to Canada, they were just everywhere around…crazy! Now I’m proud to recommend my favourites that sweeten my days here in Vancouver to everyone, haha! SweetNom Bakery, Breka or Uprising Breads (here, here! http://jaybanks.ca/vancouver/bakeries/) are just some of the best places to get the best dessert or bread in Vancouver. I love their cinnamon buns and all the cupcakes, the chocolate brownies and pies…! I think you would find some here some inspiration, too! 🙂
Hm, maybe works like this?! this
Too late for me. I just see this recipe now. If I read this recipe before previous valentine day, I could try making this recipe for my family. Haha
Two weeks ago, on valentine’s day me and my friend had a sleepover with just the two of us and there was a moment where we didn’t know what to do, and then we came up with an idea to bake something. I started searching on the web to find a good recipe. I found this recipe and it was perfect because it was valentine. We started baking this cakes and we found out that it was also a lot of fun to make them. The cakes were very easy to make thanks to the great instructions you guys posted so they were finished really soon. I must say that they were so good! With the first bite the chocolate just melted in my mouth and my friend and I both love chocolate very much so it was a perfect recipe for us. These cakes have become my favourite desserts from now on. I would advise everyone to make these cakes because they are just incredible!
This is my favorite! Gorgeous!
I wish I had realized how easy these were much sooner! Thanks for posting such great instructions and pictures, I think this would be a perfect weekend treat!
http://www.livingtoat.com/
Those are so cute, I have said that before but I want to remind you that we have an awesome contest right now sponsored by Cloetta. Win a Valentine’s goody bag.
http://globalspicedblog.tumblr.com/post/110969319761/celebrate-valentines-day-win-a-spicy-gift-bag
This looks to die for! Even though valentines day has passed I may have to give this a try and use gluten free all purpose flour! 🙂
Could you make these in ramekins instead if muffin tin?
You could – just adjust the baking time if your ramekin is larger than a muffin tin cup.
In my opinion, these cakes are perfect for everyday and not just on valentines day! They loook so good! And your photos are stunning!
ha thanks! I can’t argue about a little chocolate everyday 🙂
made these yesterday and they were gooey, messy chocolate perfection. our batter looked different than your pictures in that it was more of a mouse-like consistency but they still turned out. of course two fell apart when we flipped them over but ending valentine’s day eating chocolate off of a cookie sheet is a win in my book.
Ha – yay, so glad you liked them!! Our batter was a little thin this time, it’s usually a little thicker (I think my eggs were on the extra large side).
These look absolutely beautiful. Is there ANYTHING better than molten chocolate?!
Oh my goodness these look incredible. I would definitely end up breaking them but like you said – just as delicious! Raspberries and vanilla ice cream would make this perfection for me. Thanks for sharing!
These are something else!! Looks great!! I love this dessert so much but like you said they are best right out of the oven!! Ah almost nothing like them! Thanks for sharing. Happy Valentine’s Day