Chocolate Lava Cake. Foolproof Recipe
Chocolate Lava Cake, the perfect recipe to prepare on Valentine’s Day, given that it’s a creamy, enveloping dessert that warms the hearts.
In any case, the lava cakes are always delicious, especially for those who love chocolate desserts: these cakes create a true addiction for chocolate addicts.
A delicious chocolate dessert, of French origin, very easy to prepare for any occasion, even for parties and various celebrations. A simple recipe that requires some precautions, starting with the chocolate and butter, which must be of excellent quality, the rest I reveal in the recipe, follow me step by step.
In this recipe, I reveal the foolproof secret to have cakes with a molten and perfectly gooey center: neither too liquid (or worse, raw) nor too dry.
Update 2026: it seems that the chocolate lava cake is driving athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics crazy, a real obsession of the moment.
After all, the idea for this delicious dessert was born after a cross-country ski trip by the Bras family (a French Michelin-starred chef, inventor of the recipe). The weather that day was freezing, and all the family members, cold and shivering, gathered around a hot chocolate, the most effective remedy to warm the hearts and atmosphere. Subsequently, Bras took two years to create the perfect recipe, a Michelin-starred recipe (see in the FAQ below for history and origins) that could give that pleasant voluptuous feeling of enveloping warmth experienced that day.
If you love chocolate desserts, check out the Section of my Blog: “Chocolate Desserts (or with Nutella).
If you are looking for recipes (sweet or savory) for the Valentine’s Day menu, go to my: “Valentine’s Day Special“.
You might also be interested in:
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 2 Hours
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 5-6 cakes
- Cooking methods: Oven, Bain-Marie
- Cuisine: French
- Seasonality: All seasons, Valentine's Day
Ingredients for Chocolate Lava Cake
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 7 oz 70% dark chocolate (of quality, I use Callebaut)
- 7 oz butter (of quality)
- 2 eggs (whole, room temperature)
- 5 egg yolks (room temperature)
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 packets vanillin
- 1 pinch salt
- to taste bitter cocoa powder (for garnish, or just vanilla powdered sugar)
Tools for Chocolate Lava Cake
- Food scale
- Bowls of various sizes
- Small pot for bain-marie
- Mixer electric Philips with 450W power
- Molds with 3.5-inch diameter and 2.4-inch height
Steps for Chocolate Lava Cake
Take a suitable pot for the bain-marie and melt the dark chocolate together with the butter. Let it cool slightly.
Take a bowl and use the electric mixer to beat: the two whole eggs + 5 yolks with sugar, vanillin, and a pinch of salt, for at least 10 minutes, the mixture should “write” when lifting the whisk.
Add to the beaten eggs mixture: the chocolate melted with butter in a bain-marie, and while continuing to beat at minimum speed (or by hand) add the 3/4 cup of sifted flour, in two batches.
Butter the molds well (DO NOT flour them) and fill them with the prepared mixture up to 3/4 of their height and place them in the fridge for two hours.
This is the FOOLPROOF secret to getting chocolate lava cakes with a perfectly molten and creamy center.
After two hours, bake the chocolate cakes in a preheated static oven at 392°F for exactly 12 minutes.
Let the chocolate cakes rest for 8 minutes then unmold and serve them immediately while still hot, dusted with bitter cocoa (vanilla powdered sugar) sprinkled at the moment.
Shopping Advice!!!
To weigh the ingredients, I use this practical Digital Kitchen Scale, with a large removable bowl, tare function, and built-in timer.
I recommend the excellent Philips electric mixer with 5 speeds (+ turbo) and 450 watts of power.
To melt ingredients in a bain-marie, I always use this dedicated bain-marie pot, very useful in the kitchen (for melting butter, chocolate, etc.).
For the cakes, I used these molds of 3.5-inch diameter, 2.4-inch height.
You can purchase all the items I recommend above, on Amazon, at a great price, just click directly on the respective links.
You can purchase all the items I recommend above, on Amazon, at a great price, just click directly on the respective links.
FAQ (Questions and Answers)
Origins and history of the chocolate cake with a molten and gooey center?
The molten and warm heart cake (or coulant au chocolat or fondant, lava cake, volcán de chocolate) is a French dessert, originating in France in 1981 from the creative genius of the French three-Michelin-starred chef, Michel Bras.
The legend says that the warm chocolate cake with a molten center is one of the most copied recipes in the world.
Follow me also on:
