If you know me at all, you know that my passion is to bake. Everything from simple brownies to super intricate layer cakes. Today I want to share a delicious recipe that is super easy to make! Cocoa Coffee Lava Cakes. Because who doesn't love a dessert that melts in your mouth? I know I do.
This takes about 10 minutes to throw everything together and about 20 minutes to bake. Making the total time about 30 minutes to make. Ladies and gentlemen, I know, I am a fantastic math magician. Also, this is the best kind of dessert because it doesn't take an hour to bake, when you start mixing everything together you know that you will be eating this in about 30 minutes. So even if you absolutely HATE baking then you can manage this recipe. :)
For the cakes you'll need:
3/4 cup of butter
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
3 large eggs
3 egg yolks
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flower (leveled)
1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder (definitely NOT leveled, load that spoon up!)
For the ganache you'll need:
1/2 heavy whipping cream
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
First things first, preheat your oven to 425 degree F. That's 218 C for all my Egyptian metric family and friends. ;) Then be sure to spray your pan with cooking spray. In this recipe I'm using the 6 piece Cake Boss cakelette pan. (As seen below) If you don't have this then you can use muffin tins or ramekins or whatever you have at your disposal!
Next you'll put the butter and chocolate chips together in a microwave save bowl and microwave for 20-30 second increments. (Seen below) Make sure you cover this because the butter love to pop all over the place. Then you won't have to clean your microwave afterwards. Haha. After each increment of time make sure you stir the butter with the chocolate chips to make it nice and smooth and so the chocolate chips do not burn.
After you're done microwaving it should be perfectly smooth and buttery like seen below!
Then add the powdered sugar...
....and eggs and egg yolks and vanilla extract...
and stir it all up so it looks like this! (Slow motion for dramatic effect. Hahaha)
Then you can add the flour and the espresso powder. In this recipe I didn't have espresso powder at home so I just used some instant coffee that I had, which is totally fine and still perfectly delicious! Also, the more the better! Coffee really helps enhance the chocolate flavor and adds that wonderful coffee flavor, as well. :P
Now it's time to divide the batter up evenly in the 6 tins and get it in the oven!
The trickiest part of this cake is the cook time. You'll want to cook it 15 minutes and keep checking it every couple minutes. All ovens cook a little differently and these cakes can be deceiving. They will look like they aren't done at all but in fact they will be done! Just make sure the outer edges are getting firm and then it will be done. The inner part will look super liquidy and not cooked, but that's the point of these! Don't overcook them! :)
Also, if your work station doesn't look like this when you're finish baking then you're doing it wrong!
Now, while we wait for the cakes to cook. You might as well get started on the best part! CHOCOLATE GANACHE.
Chocolate ganache is super easy to make and SO worth it. First you'll want to have a water bath. That doesn't mean you need to go take a bath, although you might need to after this. You'll want to get a kettle and fill it partially with water and then use another bowl to place on top of that. (Seen below) Turn on the heat to medium-high.
This process uses the steam to melt the chocolate instead of the hot pan. If you just use the kettle it tends to burn the chocolate. No one wants a burnt ganache!
First add the heavy cream to the bowl.
Then add the chocolate chips with dramatic, slow-motion effect like below.
Gosh. It's sooooo satisfying to watch and listen to!
Make sure you stir throughout and you'll have a super smooth, delicious ganache.
At this point your cakes should be looking about done!
My cakes below are a little "overdone". I'm pretty sure this is because my 3 year old son was freaking out about not being able to put on his pants and while I was helping him I should've been taking the pan out of the oven. But what can you do!? You can see two cakes to the bottom right have some nice liquidy batter coming out of them, but all of the others look perfectly cooked if you weren't trying to make lava cakes! :D If you like a nice moist, firm cake then go right ahead and cook them a bit longer. But if you want a lava cake with lots of oozing chocolate then cook them for less time so they don't look done when you're taking them out of the oven.
Wait a good 5-10 minutes before you try popping them out of the pan. This allows them to set together so they don't completely fall apart when you turn the pan over!
Then it's time to drizzle that ganache right on over the tops of these bad boys! I say drizzle, but I mean DRENCH!
By this point you better be drooling!
Your five closest friends will be showing up at your house unexpectedly if you post these on your social media.
BEWARE!
If you try the recipe tag @amberelteirphotography in your Instagram photos! I'm excited to see how they turn out!
And as always, don't forget to subscribe to my blog to see more delicious recipes!
Life is what you bake of it! ;)
Good luck and happy baking!
