Molten lava cake

Gooey molten lava cakes

Lava cakes have always intrigued me. The idea that the core of these sinfully chocolatey, mini sized cakes would be oozy and liquid chocolatey (ok, so that's two 'chocolatey-s' in the same sentence) always made me wonder how you can manage to bake something as delicate and still make it so classy. Anyway, I came across a lava cake recipe here: http://www.cookingandme.com/2010/10/molten-chocolate-lava-cakes-recipe.html and I set out. and there' been no turning back since (Non stick'll vouch for that). I can wax on about the divineness of this ambrosia But suffice to say, you can't get tired of them. If guests drop in at short notice, tasteful lava cakes are the answer. If you are in need of some comfort food, molten lava cakes are the answer. If you need a chocolate fix middle of the night (à la Nigella Lawson), gooey lava cakes are the answer. The sheer simplicity of the process makes it a breeze to bake. They are just chocolate, chocolate and chocolate all the way, by not being too overpowering (is'nt that awesome??!). So, if you want to get high on chocolate in under twenty minutes, here' what you ought to do. (Ah, heaven!).

p.s: Another reason i absolutely LOVE lava cakes is 'cause if you are hard pressed for time, you can prepare the batter upto 6 hours prior and let it rest in the refrigerator and then when you are ready, bake it after letting it come back to room temperature.

Makes 5 medium sized ramekins
-110 grams of unsweetened cooking chocolate
-Half a cup or 113 grams unsalted butter
-2 medium sized eggs
-1/3 cup sugar
-1/4 cup flour

Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
In a bain-marie (pronunced 'bane mah-REE' ), or a double boiler, melt the chopped chocolate. By that, i mean, keep a large vessel of water on the stove and let it get heated. Place a smaller vessel in the bigger one, over the water. Drop the chopped chocolate into the smaller vessel and let it melt gradually. This helps 'cause chocolate is delicate and it is not really good when it is exposed to direct contact with a flame. Melting chocolate in a bain-marie helps melt the chocolate without burning it and also prevents it from splitting.

Add the butter to the chocolate and let it melt and mix it with the chocolate.

In a bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar until creamy and fluffy. Add the flour to this mixture and mix well. Add the chocolate-butter mix to the flour mix and mix thoroughly.

Pour into buttered ramekins, upto three quarters full.

Pop into the ovens and bake for about 10 min. We like our lava cakes runny and gooey in the center. By the end of ten minutes, the centre ought to be molten and not set, but the outside will have set beautifully.

and viola! you have your Lava cakes! Get ready to get hooked!