This chocolate cake with a soft center is truly amazing, it’s hard not to make it your favorite chocolate cake!
It’s a chocolate cake made with ricotta, super soft and moist, inside which, when cut, you’ll find a very creamy heart of dark chocolate (but even milk if you prefer) which is nothing but a chocolate ganache made from equal weight of fresh cream and melted chocolate.
Precisely because of the presence of a generous amount of chocolate, this recipe is truly ideal for giving new life and form to any leftover chocolate you have in the pantry, which can be either dark or milk, even the ones from Easter eggs!
To make it clearer, you could say it’s the maxi version of the classic molten chocolate cake.
My advice for this wonderful cake is, as you’ll see, to let it cool slightly before cutting, but nothing stops you from cutting it while it’s still very hot if you want the chocolate center to be even more liquid.
Try it and let me know, also because it’s truly very simple to make!
Below you’ll find the recipe explained in detail step by step and also the FULL VIDEO, as in many of my recipes.
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- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Cheap
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: serves for a 9-inch springform pan
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients to prepare CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH SOFT CENTER
- 3 eggs (cold)
- 6 oz sugar
- 7 oz ricotta
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil (I use sunflower oil)
- 5 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (of good quality)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 sachet baking powder
- 2/3 cup fresh cream
- 5 oz chocolate (dark or milk)
Tools to prepare CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH SOFT CENTER
- Cake Pan 9-inch springform
- Electric Whisk
Steps to prepare CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH SOFT CENTER
Start by preparing the chocolate ganache; you can use either dark chocolate (I use chocolate with a maximum of 50% cocoa for this recipe) or even milk chocolate, including the Easter eggs if you have no ideas on how to transform them into something even better).
If you opt for milk chocolate, the soft center will obviously be a bit sweeter, but since the cake is made with unsweetened cocoa, it won’t be overly sweet, on the contrary.
In a small non-stick pot, pour the fresh cream, heat it, and turn off the heat as soon as it reaches the first boil.
Pour all the chocolate into the pot, previously chopped coarsely. Stir with a hand whisk until the chocolate has completely melted and combined with the cream. Pour the chocolate ganache obtained into a bowl and set it aside, meanwhile, start preparing the chocolate cake.
In a large bowl, break the eggs (make sure they are cold from the fridge) and the sugar, then start the electric whisks at medium power and whip for about half a minute; it’s not necessary to whip eggs and sugar for longer, in fact, for this recipe, it might even be counterproductive.
Also add the oil slowly and incorporate it completely, always using the whisks, which from now on should always be used at the lowest power.
Once the vegetable oil is well incorporated, add the ricotta and stir again, until you notice that the mixture has become homogeneous again.
Now add the unsweetened cocoa powder, all at once, and mix, gradually collecting the cocoa with the whisks, otherwise, you’ll create a cloud of cocoa 😉
Once all the cocoa is incorporated, move on to the flour: add it a little at a time.
Finally, pour in the baking powder, preferably sifted to avoid uneven rising during baking.
Take the springform pan 9-inch and line the base with parchment paper, then pour about half of the cake batter and spread it evenly on the base of the pan.
After this, take the ganache you set aside and pour it all over the base you created with the cake batter.
Very important: pour the chocolate ganache leaving a space of about two-three centimeters empty from the edge of the springform to avoid the ganache coming in contact with it during baking; nothing irreversible would happen, but it’s preferable that only the cake batter contacts the pan.
All that’s left is to pour the remaining batter, starting from the edges and leveling it as best as you can.
Now your chocolate cake with a soft center is ready to be put in the oven to bake; I recommend static baking at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 35 minutes.
Always do the wooden skewer test to check for doneness; it should come out dry.
And here is your CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH SOFT CENTER in all its ‘indulgence’!
I recommend letting it cool for 30-40 minutes before cutting a slice, but if you want the soft center still warm and flowing, you can enjoy it right away.
Storage and Variations
The chocolate cake with a soft center can be stored for about two days covered with a glass or plastic dome.
As I mentioned in the introduction, for the chocolate ganache you can use the chocolate you have on hand, whether it is milk, dark, or even a mix of dark and milk.
If you want to transform this cake into a classic chocolate cake, super soft and moist, just skip the ganache step and, if you wish, add some chocolate chips to the batter before pouring it into the cake pan (find the recipe by clicking HERE)
