Molten Chocolate Lava Cake

I have to confess that I'm not a super huge fan of lava cakes. Sure they look impressive and taste fabulous at the first bite, but for one they're not exactly cheap and after a while all that chocolate makes you start to feel like you'll descend into diabetic hell.

Nevertheless I was left home alone the other day, and in a moment of weakness I caved in and decided to try making one for breakfast (don't judge). I just wanted to see whether I had the necessary skills to do it, and so I got to work. I'll admit I thought it was insanely difficult and I'd probably end up having to eat some morphed half-baked monster cake (like that hasn't happened enough times before)

Out of the oven

I gotta say, the 10 minutes in the oven was the most nerve-wracking 10 minutes of my life. Plus another 1 minute waiting for it to cool. When it didn't rise, I panicked. When it did rise, I panicked. When it sank in the middle I was ready to just jump off a cliff and call it a day. However when I finally flipped it over, dusted some icing sugar and took a chunk out and watch a perfect sea of chocolate burst forth, that's when I realised that world peace was possible, no I'm not fat and no we're not going to die of global warming.

Oooh mama!

Here's the cool part. My pictures were taken with a plain old phone camera with less pixels than I care to mention, and it turned out perfect. Literally no filter I promise. No fancy DSLR effect here! Oh man. I'm never ordering lava cake out again when I can make one for a fraction of the cost. And really pretty much anyone can do it.

EASY MOLTEN CHOCOLATE LAVA CAKE

1/4 cup chocolate chips
1 small egg, beaten
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Icing sugar, for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 200° C.

2. In the microwave (or a double-boiler) melt the chocolate chips, butter and milk.

3. Remove from heat, add the sugar and vanilla extract and whisk till combined.

4. Slowly add beaten egg.

5. Add flour, whisk until combined.

6. Pour into greased ramekin or oven-safe mold and bake for 10 mins.

7. Let cool for 1 min (you should see the cake releasing from the sides of the mold), overturn on a  

    serving plate and dust with icing sugar.

Notes :

-  I just broke off bits of a large cooking chocolate bar since I didn't have chocolate chips. Worked 

   anyway.

- You really do wanna try for a small egg. You'll notice that once the egg is added everything kinda 

   clumps together in an eggy, gooey mass. No worries. I'd recommend adding half the beaten egg, 

   then adding the flour and checking out the texture. If it seems a little too thick, then continue with 

   the egg. You're looking for a nice pancake batter-like texture. Remaining egg? Hello omelette :)

- I tried doing it in a friend's place and she didn't have any chocolate besides a milk chocolate bar 

   with almonds. Purists look away, but I just melted that, picked out the almonds and reduced the  

   sugar a little. Turned out fine. Even had almond bits in it.

So long story short, if you're craving for a gourmet-looking sweet dessert for one, this is the absolute Holy Grail of easy desserts. I'm pretty much the novice baker and I have my bad days, but this one plenty foolproof. And you can share it with a loved one as it's enough for two people. But for me, I'm having it all to myself.

Half gone!

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