Molten Lava Cakes

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup butter

½ cup flour or ½ cup Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 GF Flour or ½ cup of your favorite GF flour + ¼ tsp xanthan gum (omit if your flour already contains)

1 cup powdered sugar

¼ tsp salt

4 eggs

4 egg yolks

Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with GF baking spray.

Whisk together flour, powdered sugar & salt. Set aside.

Melt butter & chocolate chips together. Either in medium size microwave safe bowl, microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each interval until both are melted & mixture is smooth. Or in heavy saucepan melt over medium heat. (With either method, just be careful not to burn the mixture.)

In large bowl, whisk together eggs & egg yolks until well combined.

Add flour mixture & mix until thoroughly combined.

Add melted butter & chocolate until well combined.

Spoon batter into muffin cups. Or pour batter into bowl with pouring spout (like a pancake mixing bowl) & pour batter into muffin cups. There will be enough batter to fill each muffin tin to the top.

Bake at 425° for about 9 minutes. Do not over bake or chocolate will not be liquid.

Remove from oven & let pan stand for 3 minutes. They will fall slightly in the center, but that’s ok!

Gently loosen each cake with table knife, being careful not to cut into cakes.

Cover pan with cutting board or large platter. Invert both to release cakes from pan. Sometimes they stick a little, just gently shake or tap the muffin pan to get them out.

Serve immediately. (See notes)

Topping Options

Vanilla ice cream

Dollop of whipped cream

Light dusting of powdered sugar

Edible glitter

Light dusting of GF cocoa powder

Grated or shaved chocolate

Strawberries or raspberries

Chocolate sauce

Notes:

These cakes are best served immediately. I make them before dinner, then bake them while cleaning up, so I can serve them right out of the oven. If you don’t serve them right away (or have any left over cakes), they do keep. If you serve them at room temperature, the inside (“lava”) will be soft, but not really runny. You can put them in the microwave for 10-15 seconds if you want, but NO LONGER! Surprisingly, if you nuke them any longer, the lava bakes & becomes cake-like in texture. (I know, weird! Haha)

This is an easy (& delicious), but impressive dessert! It’s fairly intense, but the individual servings are the perfect size. It goes really well with an ice cold glass of milk.

The recipe is based on one from melaniecooks.com – thanks Melanie!

This recipe can be a little messy! But the results are totally worth the cleanup!