The Lava Cake Challenge

Hello everyone, i'm back from holidays and already back at uni. So as you know i am very good at blogging when uni is back since blogging is a great form of procrastination. So instead of reading up on medical things i decided it would be my (and my friend lauren's) mission to perfect the lava cake (aka fondant cake, chocolate souffle etc). It all started not so long ago (last night) when lauren told me about the most delicious dessert ever called the Lava Cake. She has been trying to perfect this recipe also with the main problems being:

1) over or under cooking the cake

2) the cake being stuck to the ramekin

3) it being so delicious the baker would eat the batter raw hence there would be nothing to bake

So i warn you, bake this recipe a few time before presenting it at a dinner party since everyone's oven is different and the times can definitely vary. For example we tried this recipe last night in jacki's oven and after 10 mins it was too runny it oozed all over the board, so we ended up scrapping it up and rebaking it (which worked surprisingly). We baked it for another 10 mins to have it overcooked. The other reason i take this challenge is- even if the cake is under or over baked it is still delicious, therefore it is never a let down.

So tonight i tried again and after 2 attempts i think i am closer to the perfect lava cake.

Attempt number 1 was foiled because i bought milk instead of dark chocolate (really silly mistake), then to add salt to the wound i overbaked it (again). The second attempt was much better, my lovely boyfriend went to woolworths to buy me the right chocolate (dark) and so begins attempt number 2. Here is the recipe for attempt number 2...

Ingredients:

200g dark chocolate

120g butter (unsalted) at room temp and diced

3 eggs

70g castor sugar

60g plain flour

Method:

Preheat over to 190 degrees fan forced. Over a double boiler melt the chocolate. Add the butter to the chocolate and stir until it is mixed in and smooth.

Beat 3 eggs and the sugar in a mixer until the mixture is light in colour and texture. Add the plain flour to the egg and sugar mixture. Ensure the chocolate mix is cooled and add it to the egg mix.

Stir with a spatula to combine and pour into moulds. I used silicon molds and i found they were great (once you go silicon you can't go back), however lauren's dad and lauren both use ramekins and they swear by ramekins, so i guess it's personal preference. I baked 6 at a time for 10 minutes then i let it stand till it was cool, before removing from the moulds. Cut and watch the oozing lava flow then enjoy.

This is what they looked like when i took them out of the oven, they seem very undercooked but if you let them cool in the moulds they continue to cook to perfection (hopefully).

This was the one perfect lava cake (1 out of 6) (lauren this ones for you)

So this recipe is really easy the hardest part is the baking, you want the cake to be cooked on the outside but raw on the inside (to be the sauce). It's tricky since if it's overcooked it's just a cake (no lava) but if it's undercooked it won't come out of the moulds in one piece. It might be easier to make it a big cake (as in bake it in a cake tin) since it's harder to overbake it (kind of like a raw cake which we've all done). Anyways mine are still far from perfect, i only had one perfect one out of 6 so there is still plenty of work to be done!

Until next time xoxo