Chocolate Lava Cake

After making Baked Alaska, we thought we'd try something Hawaiian--Chocolate Lava Cake. Now this isn't really a Hawaiian recipe but volcanos are Hawaiian, right? It's a dessert and it's chocolate, both great bonuses.

We found a recipe on Food Network by Ree Drummond from The Pioneer Woman show.

The ingredients are basic:

• Cooking spray for the ramekins (or other small baking/serving dishes)
• 1 stick of butter
• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate
• 2 ounce semisweet chocolate
• 1.25 cups powdered sugar
• 2 whole eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• Vanilla ice cream for serving

The first thing we worked on was separating the eggs.

Using the egg separator

Eggs!

After pre-heating the oven to 425 Fahrenheit, we put the butter and chocolate in a bowl and melted them in the microwave (about one minute).

Unwrapping the butter (which we let go to room temperature)

Butter and chocolate, yum!

Out of the microwave, we whisked the mixture to make sure the chocolate was melted and well combined.

Whisking the chocolate

The sugar came next.

Adding sugar a bit at a time

The final batch

The eggs went next, then the vanilla, then the flour.

Final addition

Next, we divided the mixture among our dishes. The recipe is supposed to serve four but we thought we'd try some larger and some smaller dishes and wound up with five.

Filling the big cups

Careful work

After baking for 13 minutes (check that the sides look firm but the centers soft), we took them out to stand for a minute.

Fresh from the oven (use a cookie sheet to avoid spills inside the oven)

Close up

We inverted the dishes on a plate and the cakes fell out easily. Both sizes came out well which surprised (and delighted) us.

Lava in the cake!

Gooey goodness

Delighted cook/taste tester

Good to the last drop!