This luxurious looking dessert is so simple to make! The two key things to ensure you do are: 1) grease and dust the mould so they slip out easily when you turn them out onto a plate; and 2) don’t overfill the mould! You don’t need to use expensive chocolate for this. And though I made these in dariole moulds, you can make these in ramekins or even a muffin tin.

Ingredients

7 oz / 200g dark chocolate melts (note 1)
3.5 oz / 100g unsalted butter , chopped
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 tbsp flour
5 heaped tsp smooth peanut butter
Cocoa powder , for dusting

Instructions

Preheat oven to 200C/390F (standard) or 180C/350F (convection/fan forced).
Place chocolate and butter in a bowl. Microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring in between. Stir well to combine butter and chocolate and leave to cool for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, generously grease 5 x 3/4 cup dariole moulds then dust with cocoa powder. (See notes 2 and 3)
In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs (2 x whole eggs + 2 x yolks) and sugar.
Add the chocolate mixture and mix until combined.
Add flour and fold through until just combined. Do not over mix.
Pour batter into dariole moulds until it reaches halfway.
Drop a heaped teaspoon of peanut butter in the centre of each. Push down gently to mostly submerge.
Top up with remaining batter until the dariole mould is 3/4 filled. Do not overfill! (Note 4)
Bake for 16 minutes, or until the top springs back when touched gently. (Note 5)
Turn out onto plate. If you dusted the mould with cocoa powder, it should slip out easily. If it does not, then run a knife around the edge.
Serve immediately!

Notes

1. You don’t need to buy top-of-the-range chocolate for this recipe. Any decent brand will work great. It’s so rich that you can’t tell the difference between an expensive and mid range chocolate.
2. Dusting the dariole moulds with cocoa powder helps to ensure they come out. I use cocoa powder instead of flour so you can’t see it (I used flour once and you could see white specks).
3. This recipe makes enough for 5 x 3/4 cup dariole moulds or 4 x 1 cup dariole moulds. Or it makes around 7 using a standard size cupcake/muffin tin.
4. The lava cake will puff up about 30% when it bakes (which always surprises me given that there is no baking powder in the batter). If it puffs up above the rim of the dariole mould then it usually ends up with a sloped surface which means when you turn it out, it doesn’t sit straight. The surface also has a tendency to crack (because it is more exposed to the heat).
So as tempting as it is, do not fill the dariole mould more than 3/4 of the way up. Same applies if you are using a ramekin or muffin tin.
5. Baking time for 1 cup dariole mould is 18 minutes and in muffin tins they take 14 minutes. But ovens vary so I recommend checking the cake around 1 to 2 minutes before the prescribed cooking times. Touch the top lightly and if it springs back, it is ready.
6. These are best served warm while the “lava” inside is runny. When they cool, the inside turns fudge-like and doesn’t become runny again even if you reheat it. They are still delicious, like a really rich fudgey brownie.
7. To make ahead, make the batter and grease and dust the moulds. Refrigerate the batter until required. Bring to room temperature, then pour into moulds and bake as per recipe directions. If you refrigerate the batter in the moulds, I find that the cake tends to stick more, making them harder to invert onto the plate.
8. Nutrition per serving.