Monday, July 23, 2012

Perfect Lava Cake

This post makes me really happy. Some of you may remember that in one of my first blogposts I attempted to bake a warm chocolate soufflé with a liquid inside. 
Well, looking back now I have to admit that didn't work out that well. 
Even though it was still a tiny bit liquid inside, it simply wasn't chocolaty enough.
Good, but not good enough... I know, I kind of raved about how good it was. 

But let's face it: It was my first blogpost, I was all excited and proud. But with a little bit more experience, I can only recommend you to FORGET ABOUT THIS RECIPE! 
I found a lava cake recipe that is way better and easier to prepare. And I can guarantee you that it will stay perfectly liquid inside, if you follow my instructions.


What you need:

6 eggs (medium-sized, at room temperature)
225g / 7.6 oz refined sugar
90g / 3 oz flour
170g / 5.7 oz bittersweet chocolate 
(good quality, like Valhrona or Lindt, with at least 60% cocoa)
170g / 5.7 oz butter
some butter and sugar for the soufflé cups



Directions:

Preheat oven to 160°C/320°F.

Using a hand blender mix eggs, sugar and flour in a large bowl.

Melt chocolate and butter over a bain marie (bowl in a hot water bath). 

Slowly add the chocolate-butter to the egg-sugar mix while blending.

Butter the cups and sprinkle with sugar.

Fill each cup to about 2/3 or 3/4 with the chocolate batter (the lava cake won't rise that much).

Place cups on top of a cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes. 
My lava-cake needed much longer. Could be because I have a gas-oven where the heat does not circulate that evenly. I did one test cake and checked after 8 minutes for the first time, and then every 2-3 minutes.That way you get a good idea of how long they need to bake.

You can tell the lava cakes are perfect, when the edges are firm, but the center is still runny. 

Take the cakes out of the oven, carefully run a knife  around the edges to loosen the cakes from the cups.

Invert the cakes onto plates, garnish if you like and serve immediately!


Notes: 

  • I served hot cherry-elderflower sauce with mine!
  • To make it a little less sweet, try using brown instead of refined white sugar. I haven't done tried that before, therefore I don't know if it'll work, though...



3 comments:

  1. oh wow thats awesome, want to bite into the PC right now!!!!
    Love your Blog! The only thing I was wondering about is, how can you afford this high quality ingredients and your restaurant visits... looks so expensive....

    Greetz
    Mariell

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  2. Hey Mariell,

    Thanks for the compliment! I like your blog as well!

    It's not even that expensive. First of all, we eat at home most of the time.. That saves money already. Also, we do not cook that excessively every day. Every once in a while we can afford to go for fancy dinner. And, of course, that's when I blog about it.
    But food and cooking is also my passion. Therefore it happens quite often that I spend most of my money on food and good ingredients rather than clothes for example. ok, this is not always an easy one, I admit. But don't forget: I'm in this with my husband. Therefore we share our expenses on food. That also makes it a hell lot easier...

    Best wishes from Berlin,
    Julia

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh...the lava cake lookes so greate. I have to try it sometimes. how many cakes do you get from the amount of ingredients?

    ReplyDelete