This week, we reviewed a recipe for a molten lava chocolate cake from Sarah Jampel at Food 52.

This is a profoundly chocolate cake. As fantastic as its flavor is, its texture is also marvelous – incredibly rich, yet its density is modulated by an equal degree of delicacy. The molten chocolate is luxurious and the cake melts in your mouth – what am I saying? It melts before it even hits your mouth. The directions work exactly as advertised. It’s also, as scratch cakes go, fairly easy. This recipe really drills it home that the molten part of a molten chocolate lava cake is simply under-baked batter. But it’s a flourless cake, which is why it works. The recipe comes from Food 52, adapted from a recipe at Dana Treat, which is in turn adapted from a recipe at Food and Wine. And now I’m adding my unholy link to that chain.

What you need for one 9-inch, (single-layer) cake

8 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
8 oz. unsalted butter (1/2 pound, or 2 sticks)
2 1/2 oz. unsweetened cocoa powder (3/4 cup)
Pinch of salt
12.25 oz. eggs, separated (from 7 large eggs)
9.5 oz. sugar (1 1/3 cups) 

Abbreviated Directions (for full directions, see Food 52)

Melt chocolate and butter, whisk in cocoa and salt. Preheat. Beat yolks and half the sugar, 3 minutes, med-high. Whip whites, beat in remaining sugar: very stiff. Fold in chocolate, then whites. Reserve 2 cups (refrigerate). Bake in a buttered 9″ springform for 25 at 350°F. Cool completely. (Can be kept, refrigerated.) Remove collar. Spread batter. (Replace collar.) Bake 15 at 400°F. Cool to warm.

Notes:

• If your pan is the type with a pedestal base, consider the parchment optional. If your pan is the more common type – with a small lip around the base – parchment is optional if you intend to serve the cake on the base, but you’ll need it if you want to remove the cake to a plate.
• Seven eggs yolks should weigh 5.25 oz. If yours weigh less, add another yolk and/or supplement with mayo. Seven egg whites should weigh 7 oz. Mine weighed 8 3/8, and I went with it – all good.
• If you’re using a stand mixer and have only one bowl, scrape the beaten yolks into a large mixing bowl, then wash out the stand mixer’s bowl with hot, hot water so that no trace of the yolk remains.
• Very stiff beaten whites look like marshmallow cream. The more volume, the better.
• Two generous cups of batter weighs about 10 oz. Do not – I repeat, do not – taste this cake batter if you have no sense of discipline. It is so delicious that you will eat it in its entirety and wind up with no cake to show for the effort.
• The cake will crack, and while cooling it will fall. It will look like a spectacular fail, and you may worry that you haven’t saved enough batter to fill the crater. Fret not; you have. If you don’t like the look of the cracker-like ridge, carefully remove it – but I love the way it looks. This is not a typical-looking cake – it looks like a lava flow!
• I like the collar on when I rebake the cake. I find this reduces the possibility of blackened edges.
• Want to take this to a dinner party? When you’re ready to leave, spread the reserved batter, replace the collar if you removed it, cover with foil. You’ll need to use your host’s oven only for a few minutes between dinner and dessert.
• Leftover cake is easy to cut straight from the fridge. Pop it in the microwave for 1-2 minutes (depending on how large a piece) at 30% power. This will get it warm/hot and re-moltenize the ooey-gooey. It’s quite good. Its flavor may have lost a slight edge in terms of nuance, but the texture seems surprisingly more exquisite.

Credit: Food 52

In the photos that accompany the Food 52 post, the molten part of the cake appears to be very slowly oozing its way toward the plate. I was able to get the same effect (setting aside my flagrant disregard for art direction), only by letting the cake cool to the point that it was just a handful of degrees above body temperature. This type of cake is often served hot, in which case in this form, there’s no way you’d get decent-looking wedge shape. The molten chocolate will pool on the plate. That is probably why these kinds of cakes are usually brought to you in single-serving ramekins. However, I tried this cake over and over again, at every temperature. (Oh, the things I do for you, The Internet.) This cake absolutely rules when warm rather than hot – in the form that it’s pictured here. It’s really good hot, but it’s a life-changing experience when just warm enough to slowly ooze.

Brava, Sarah (5 / 5)

If you’d like to consider a version of this cake whose molten center is ganache instead of batter, check this out. While I contend that Ooey, Gooey batter is probably more delicious than a ganache, I’m eager to try the ganache.

Molten Chocolate Lava Cake is delicious, but there are many cakes deserving of your love.

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