The lava cake or moelleux aux chocolat or molten cake, it’s just about as chic as it is easy to make.

I know everyone is crazy about it, I am too, when I go out I order lava cake, it’s kind of spectacular, tasty and seems so difficult to be able to get it right at home. I believe when you cook, the most important is the courage, the courage to try stuff, even if something seems difficult. After the first 2-3 dishes I got right and family and friends being impressed, I suddenly saw the kitchen as full of possibilities. So my courageousness grew each day and I love the result, their surprise and reaction, as my daughter says “miam miam” which translates as something delicious that gives me more willing to try new things. Not everything is a success, not by far, but I’ll continue to try.

Now in retrospective, I realize the lava cake recipe is easy to make, hearty and actually a winning recipe, a dessert that impresses everyone. Whether or not it has love-inducing powers, chocolate certainly holds undertones of romance.

I clipped my recipe from youtube, watching few movies and taking something from here and there. A nice video that gave me confidence to give it a shot and succeed with it its Thomas Joseph from Kitchen Conundrums.

I served the lava chocolate with Macadamia nut Brittle Haagen Dazs ice cream and a sprig of mint and paired it with a Romanian wine, Principele Radu. Now my suggestion is to have Principele Radu – Ist year, 2010, a silver winner at Bruxelles, a classy Merlot, in ruby- indigo. If you do not find, (which happened to me), I chose the Principele Radu 2^nd year, 2011 but it just starts to open now, so I’d wait a bit with it.

Ingredients:

200 g dark cooking chocolate- I used the 75% one

110 g unsalted butter

For flavor I used 2 vanilla pods, (you might also add a sprinkle of nutmeg, a sprinkle of cinnamon for more flavor)

35 g plain flour

200 g sugar

3 whole eggs

3 egg whites

Icing sugar and flour for the molds/ ramekins

To serve:

Vanilla ice cream / I used Macadamia nut Brittle Haagen Dazs icecream

A spring of mint

Icing sugar

Directions:

Over low heat, melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler/ bain marie.

Blend the eggs, egg whites and sugar in a stand mixer until thick.

When chocolate and butter are already mixed, add the vanilla and whisk well. Add the chocolate mixture to your egg and sugar mixture and mix until incorporated. Add the flour and mix well. Butter the sides of your molds and coat them with flour, make sure to remove any excess flour for better results. This way the cake will come off very easy on the plate. Pour the mixture into the molds and bake at 220 degrees for 7-8 minutes. The edge should be loose and come off slightly. The edges should be firm but the center will be runny. Invert it onto the serving plate. One trick that might work for the first time- take the molds out one after 6 minutes, another after 7 minutes and 8 minutes to check the interior. This way you know for the next time. Serve it with a scoop of icecream, sprinkle some icing sugar and add the mint sprig. Here is my result! At request I am going to bake it more often.

Enjoy!