Is there anything better than a melt-in-the-middle chocolate lava cake? Well, how about one with a gooey white chocolate centre that’s easy to whip up in no time at all?
Still on the fence?
I’m definitely going to win you over when I show you photos
The cake itself is made with very little flour – the main ingredients here are eggs, butter, and lots of gorgeous dark chocolate. Scared of dark chocolate? Don’t be. Milk chocolate would be too sickly here – you definitely want to keep things dark to complement the white chocolate centre.
And you definitely are going to want to serve this pudding with a decent scoop of creamy vanilla ice cream right there on top. Because warm chocolate desserts were made to have vanilla ice cream melting down the sides. Tell me I’m wrong.
The melty white chocolate middles are the easiest thing ever. Just break some tasty white chocolate into pieces and place a few on top of the lava cake before baking. Don’t press them down – they will sink right on down whilst baking.
I created three versions of this lava cake before this one became my winner. The first involved a white chocolate and raspberry ganache centre, but it just didn’t go to plan. That happens sometimes, and I’m learning to not let it get me down and power on through.
Baking can feel amazing, especially when you manage to create something incredible and everything just works. Like the Ferrero Rocher Pavlova, which was fantastic straight away. But then sometimes things need to be tweaked and improved and worked on, and that can be tough. But I’m sure you’ll agree that the end result is worth it.
Basically – don’t give up guys.
Everyone and their pug knows that raspberry was made to go with chocolate, so I drizzled on some raspberry sauce which is so easy to make. Just throw some fresh or frozen raspberries in a small pan, and heat gently until you can stir them into a sort of mush. Add some icing sugar (confectioners sugar) and a little lemon juice, and press through a sieve. You can pop it in the fridge until you are ready to serve.
Plus, chuck some fresh raspberries on the plate too, of course. I ate like a whole punnet of them whilst slaving away in the kitchen, I’m surprised there were any left for the photos. Raspberries are my faves.
- 55g (2oz) dark or bittersweet chocolate
- 55g (¼ cup) unsalted butter
- 1 large egg plus 2 large egg yolks
- 25g (2½ tablespoons) icing sugar (US powdered or confectioners sugar)
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 20g (2¼ tablespoons) plain or all-purpose flour
- 25g (1oz) white chocolate, broken into chunks
- Fresh raspberries, vanilla ice cream, and raspberry sauce to serve
- Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F (180°C fan) and grease two 6oz ramekins with butter. Make sure you grease them very well - you can also dust with a little cocoa powder too to make sure the cakes aren't going to stick.
- Melt the dark chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of boiling water, stirring occasionally until completely melted. Set aside to cool slightly.
- Using an electric mixer, whisk the egg, egg yolks, icing sugar, and vanilla until the mixture is thick and pale yellow. The mixture should have doubled in size.
- Add the salt, flour, and melted chocolate to the egg mixture, and gently fold together. Be careful when folding, and try to keep as much of the air in the batter as possible. Make sure to scrape right to the bottom of the bowl to make sure any pockets of flour are well mixed in.
- Spoon the batter into the ramekins, and place a couple of chunks of white chocolate on top of the batter (see picture in post above). Make sure not to press the white chocolate in too far, and don't add any more batter on top. The white chocolate will melt into the batter once it is in the oven, I promise.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cakes are slightly firm, but still have a little bit of jiggle in the middle. Leave to cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, and then gently turn out onto a plate to serve. If necessary, run a knife around the edge of the cake before turning out to help the cake come out of the ramekin nicely. Serve immediately with a generous dollop of vanilla ice cream, some fresh raspberries, and a drizzle of raspberry sauce.
I still think the ganache centre ones were delicious. I inhaled both of them in about two seconds. You know what, they were all amazing. You can keep working on stuff as much as you like if it means I get to eat puddings at regular intervals throughout the day 🙂
They were delicious but hideous. Hideous does not make it to this blog!